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Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression

Authors :
Johan Reutfors
Johan Ahlner
Fotios C. Papadopoulos
Urban Ösby
Göran Isacsson
Source :
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 122:454-460
Publication Year :
2010
Publisher :
Wiley, 2010.

Abstract

Objective: Ecological studies have demonstrated a substantial decrease in suicide in parallel with an increasing use of antidepressants. To investigate on the individual level the hypothesis that antidepressant medication was a causal factor. Method: Data on the toxicological detection of antidepressants in 18 922 suicides in Sweden 1992-2003 were linked to registers of psychiatric hospitalization as well as registers with sociodemographic data. Results: The probability for the toxicological detection of an antidepressant was lowest in the non-suicide controls, higher in suicides, and even higher in suicides that had been psychiatric in-patients but excluding those who had been in-patients for the treatment of depression. Conclusion: The finding that in-patient care for depression did not increase the probability of the detection of antidepressants in suicides is difficult to explain other than by the assumption that a substantial number of depressed individuals were saved from suicide by postdischarge treatment with antidepressant medication. Language: en

Details

ISSN :
0001690X
Volume :
122
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........f76b3623580ffbe5b74ecd9cb2118cc8
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01561.x