TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparing episodes of antidepressants use with intermittent episodes of no use
T2 - A higher relative risk of suicide attempts but not of suicide at young age
AU - Termorshuizen, Fabian
AU - Smeets, Hugo M.
AU - Boks, Marco P M
AU - Heerdink, Eibert R.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - The Food and Drug Administration has issued a number of advisories regarding a possible causal link between antidepressants and suicide behaviour among young persons. We investigated the age dependency of (fatal) suicide attempts associated with antidepressants (N=232,561). By linking insurance claims with the death register of Statistics Netherlands (2002-2011), rates of (fatal) suicide attempts were estimated during antidepressant use and intermittent episodes without use. The age dependency of the relative risk of attempts and of suicide during episodes with compared with episodes without antidepressants was investigated by testing the {age × episode} interaction. The attempt rate during antidepressant use decreased with increasing age, concurrently with a decrease of the relative risk from 3.62 to 1.86 (p for interaction 5 years). No suicides were found among those aged 0.46). The association between antidepressants and suicide attempts at a young age does not necessarily point to a causal relationship, and, most importantly, did not translate to a similar age dependency for suicide.
AB - The Food and Drug Administration has issued a number of advisories regarding a possible causal link between antidepressants and suicide behaviour among young persons. We investigated the age dependency of (fatal) suicide attempts associated with antidepressants (N=232,561). By linking insurance claims with the death register of Statistics Netherlands (2002-2011), rates of (fatal) suicide attempts were estimated during antidepressant use and intermittent episodes without use. The age dependency of the relative risk of attempts and of suicide during episodes with compared with episodes without antidepressants was investigated by testing the {age × episode} interaction. The attempt rate during antidepressant use decreased with increasing age, concurrently with a decrease of the relative risk from 3.62 to 1.86 (p for interaction 5 years). No suicides were found among those aged 0.46). The association between antidepressants and suicide attempts at a young age does not necessarily point to a causal relationship, and, most importantly, did not translate to a similar age dependency for suicide.
KW - age
KW - Antidepressants
KW - pharmaco-epidemiology
KW - suicide
KW - suicide attempts
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84988701019&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0269881116639752
DO - 10.1177/0269881116639752
M3 - Article
C2 - 27005310
AN - SCOPUS:84988701019
SN - 0269-8811
VL - 30
SP - 1000
EP - 1007
JO - Journal of Psychopharmacology
JF - Journal of Psychopharmacology
IS - 10
ER -