Increased Teen Suicide Trend Is Linked to the Drop in Use Of Antidepressants After the FDA Raised Worries About Risks
Today in the WSJ the article Elevated Rate Of Teen Suicide Stirs Concern – WSJ.com reports findings from a new study that their was a surprising rise int the youth suicide rate in 2004 and that it was sustained into 2005. The rate did drop in 2005 but remained higher than expected. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for those age 10-24 rose 8% from 2003 to 2004 — after a cumulative drop of more than 28% from 1990 to 2003. The CDC cautioned at the time that it didn’t know if the rise was “short-lived” or the “beginning of a trend.”
Interestingly the rise in suicides among this age group coincides with the Food and Drug Administration advisories about antidepressants that led to the decision in October 2004 to put a ‘black warning box’ on all antidepressants labels.
U.S. Teen Suicide Rate for Youths Ages 10-19
Segmenting out the 10-19 year olds in the study the rate of suicide per 100,000 in 2005 was 4.49, which is down from 4.74 in 2004. But if the rise from 2003-2004 was a fluke, then the 2005 number would have been approximately 3.8 per 100,000. Dr. Jeffrey Bridge an epidemiologist at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and lead author of the study also found that in 2003-2004, the increase in the suicide rate among people 10-19 was much sharper than the rise in the rate from 20-24 year olds. He also claims over all we are seeing over 600 more suicides in this two year period than would have been expected.
These are some alarming statistics and obviously more studies are being done. Some of the other factors that have not been taken into account that may be contributing to the rise in suicides include alcohol use, access to firearms, the influence of the internet. In my humble opinion these are masks for deeper emotional problems and are activities due to mental health issues that lead to suicide but do not cause suicide; firearms are a different story all together. I remember when the warning information first came out about young people and antidepressants. It affected our family, my son, who was 12 at the time, began to show severe emotional mental health issues and his psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants for him. I was concerned and questioned his decision due to the warnings. It was not the cure but maybe it did save his life.
Posts
