Confounding the SSRI-Suicide Risk

Two articles in the July 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association temper recent concerns about a possible link between selective serontin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and suicide attempts.

The first is a report on a study of "Antidepressants and the Risk of Suicidal Behaviors," by Dr. Hershel Jick, et al. of the Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program at Boston University School of Medicine.

That study used data from the United Kingdom's General Practice Research Database to compare the risk of first-time suicidal behavior in patients who were prescribed amitriptyline, fluoxetine or paroxetine with the same risk for patients …