NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Anti-depressant medications may be linked with suicide attempts and death in severely depressed children and adolescents, but not adults, says a U.S. study.
Dr. Mark Olfson, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, analyzed the medical records of 5,469 Medicaid patients who were hospitalized for depression at least once in 1999 or 2000.
Severely depressed children and adolescents ages 6 to 18 years were 1.5 times as likely to attempt suicide and also significantly more likely to complete suicide if they were treated with an anti-depressant medication than if they were not treated with an anti-depressant, but adults age 19 to 64 years treated with anti-depressants were not associated with suicide attempts or suicide deaths, according to Olfson.
"With these caveats in mind, the present findings are consistent with the recommendations for careful clinical monitoring during the treatment of depressed children and adolescents with antidepressant medications," the authors conclude in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
