Suicide up after anti-depressant warning

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, April 8 (UPI) -- Two years after Health Canada warned about prescribing anti-depressants to children, suicide by children and teens increased, a Manitoba study found.

The study determined after the 2004 warning that said newer anti-depressants may be associated with an increased risk of "suicide-related" events in patients under age 18, rates of completed suicide spiked by 25 percent, Canwest News Service reported.

The study, published in the journal of the Canadian Medical Association, said more than 90 percent of the children and teens who killed themselves were not taking antidepressants when they died.

Researchers tracked in Manitoba before and after the 2004 warning an overall 14-percent drop in anti-depressant use among children and adolescents, fewer visits to doctors for depression and among 8- to 17-year-olds -- increased rates of completed suicide.

However, lead author Laurence Katz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Winnipeg, warns the increased risk of suicide could be a "random fluctuation."

Katz said that study cannot conclude that the warning, the change in antidepressant use, or drop in physician office visits resulted in changes in suicide rates.

The widely publicized drug warnings have led to more cases of untreated depression and an impact "beyond what was intended," Katz said.