Re: anti-depressants and teen suicide

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:
>
>
> if anti-d drugs encourage bipolarity, it could cause mood swings of
> the sort that encourage suicidal thoughts (e.g., when one's dreams of
> becoming "rich, rich!" turn to sawdust).

If a person is already bipolar but has only suffered depressive episodes
(and all the bipolar patients I know suffer far more weeks per year from
depression than form 'manic' episodes), taking an anti-depressant can
(and often does) trigger a manic episode. But whether ADs can
"encourage" bipolarity (as opposed to triggering and episode) is
probably debatable (and hard to establish either way).

>
> On 8/9/06, Walt Byars <wbyars@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Going from personal experience, I attempted suicide in 2004 (ingested a
> > ton of pills but couldn't keep from throwing up, couldn't eat food for a
> > few days though) when I was 18 a month after I started taking Luvox. I
> > stopped taking it then, but I started taking it again in spring 2006 when
> > I was twenty and while I didn't attempt suicide again I was baker acted in
> > early july.

I am not familiar with all the research, but assuming ADs can/do trigger
suicide attempts in some patients that in itself is _not_ evidence that
the AD directly triggered the attempt. In the depths of really serious
depression, a person can be just too passive to attempt suicide; if an
AD starts to work (and they don't work magic) the patient may while
still suffering fairly deep depression have enough energy to kill
him/herself.

> >
> > As far as I can tell, the correlation is probably there because I changed
> > my medications to anti-depressants when I was feeling worst. Perhaps this
> > could be why the study found the results, because the people who were
> > worst were more likely to take antidepressants.

Also most apt to improve _some_ but not enough to make living seem
worthwhile.
> >
> > > [there was some discussion of this awhile back on pen-l]

But in general, treatment of mental illness, whether by counselling or
drugs, is still a hugely iffy business. And the drug companies are, of
course, too powerful. Development of pharmacology will remain half-assed
as long as this is so.

Carrol