Commonly used modern antidepressants can cause adults as well as children to attempt suicide, a new study says.
An 18-month inquiry convened by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK banned the use of the drugs, known as the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) in children and adolescents.
Last December it said the drugs were over-prescribed though they could safely be used by adults.
But a study published today in the online journal BMC Medicine casts doubt on the MHRA's findings. One of the manufacturers, the British company GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the bestselling Seroxat, did not submit its original detailed data from clinical trials of the drug to the regulator, said the Norwegian author of the report, Ivar Aursnes.
The absence of a detailed breakdown between suicide attempts and suicidal thinking, Dr Aursnes said, distorted the conclusions on the dangers of the drugs.
Using the information from the original trial Dr Aursnes and colleagues found that in 16 trials there were seven attempted suicides among people taking Seroxat, compared to one among those given a placebo.
The data, they write, when added to the information from trials of the other drugs of the class, "strongly suggests that the use of SSRIs are connected with increasing intensity per year of suicidal attempts". They make "a strong case for a conclusion, at least with a short time perspective, of an increased risk of suicidal attempts in adults taking antidepressants".
Dr Aursnes obtained the original trial results from the Norwegian regulatory authority, he said. When the MHRA asked for data on suicides from GlaxoSmithKline, what they received "was not the original science".
More.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1553676,00.html
An 18-month inquiry convened by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK banned the use of the drugs, known as the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) in children and adolescents.
Last December it said the drugs were over-prescribed though they could safely be used by adults.
But a study published today in the online journal BMC Medicine casts doubt on the MHRA's findings. One of the manufacturers, the British company GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the bestselling Seroxat, did not submit its original detailed data from clinical trials of the drug to the regulator, said the Norwegian author of the report, Ivar Aursnes.
The absence of a detailed breakdown between suicide attempts and suicidal thinking, Dr Aursnes said, distorted the conclusions on the dangers of the drugs.
Using the information from the original trial Dr Aursnes and colleagues found that in 16 trials there were seven attempted suicides among people taking Seroxat, compared to one among those given a placebo.
The data, they write, when added to the information from trials of the other drugs of the class, "strongly suggests that the use of SSRIs are connected with increasing intensity per year of suicidal attempts". They make "a strong case for a conclusion, at least with a short time perspective, of an increased risk of suicidal attempts in adults taking antidepressants".
Dr Aursnes obtained the original trial results from the Norwegian regulatory authority, he said. When the MHRA asked for data on suicides from GlaxoSmithKline, what they received "was not the original science".
More.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1553676,00.html