Anti-Depressants Have Little Effect on Suicide Rates in Youth
August 20th, 2009 |
A GoodTherapy.org News Headline
Anti-depressant medications, which have experienced a sharp rise in popularity in recent years, often fall short of providing a truly meaningful or long-term solution to those experiencing difficult mental health concerns. While many may take anti-depressant medications in an effort to quell suicidal thoughts and behaviors, a recently released study has suggested that the substances provide little if any deterrent to those under the age of twenty five. While adults over the age of sixty-five showed a notable decrease in “suicidality,” based on a review of statistics and literature recently provided to the US Food and Drug Administration, young adults and children exhibited the same increase in such thoughts and behaviors as those not taking the medications. The research supports the need for greater inquiries into the efficacy of anti-depressants, particularly for children and adolescents.
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3 comments so far
i have even heard that some ant-depressants can increase the likelihood of suicide in teens..but not sure if this is supported by research or not.
Katrina, I’ve actually heard and read that abruptly discontinuing anti depressant medication without medical advice can trigger emotional disturbances and suicide is definitely a possibility.
Katrina I was thinking the exact same thing while reading this. I have also heard that there have been cases of teens and other young people going into rages and even killing themselves or others and it has been blamed on the anti depressant medications that they were taking at the time. I always err on the side of caution when giving my children any new medication and especially would have to think long and hard about something like these that are supposed to be taken long term. Young minds are constantly changing and growing and who knows what kind of internal damage one could be causing by taking unnecessray drugs. Makes you take pause and really try to come up with somme better ways to handle these issues that seem unfortunately to be coming up more and more often in mainstream society.