Suicide and antidepressants

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Antidepressant drugs are more effective than placebo in treating acute episodes of affective disorders, and they may help prevent relapses and recurrences of depression. Although they also decrease the score on the “suicide item” on the Hamilton rating scale for depression, this is not a valid measure of suicidal intent or a predictor of future self destruction. Suicide is rare, and small differences in suicide rates during treatment with different antidepressants could be due to chance or unsatisfactory matching between groups. Thus, saying that antidepressants prevent suicide could be more a statement of faith than of fact.