Resource Tag: PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS

Introduction: Adolescents with mental disorders show an increased risk of suicidal phenomena. Vice versa, suicidality is a serious adverse event of psychotropic drug therapy in adolescents. There are only a few new psychotropic agents approved for this young age group. We evaluated the (pre-pandemic) prevalence of off-label use as well as detailed blood concentrations of outpatient […]

We previously showed that folic acid prescriptions for any indication were associated with lower rates of suicidal behaviour. Given that future randomised clinical trials are likely to focus on psychiatric disorders carrying elevated risk for suicide, we now report on the moderating effects of prior suicidal behaviour, psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medications on potential antisuicidal […]

The study presents an interdisciplinary study focusing on the critical issue of suicide among young people in two European countries, Ukraine, and Estonia. The research aims to shed light on the multifaceted nature of the problem by exploring the complex interactions within the system of legal relations involving the key stakeholders: doctors, patients, pharmacists, and […]

Objectives: To determine the numbers and types of medicines dispensed around the time of death to people who die by suicide; to compare the medicines recently dispensed and those recorded in post mortem toxicology reports. Design, setting, participants: Analysis of linked National Coronial Information System (NCIS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data from the Australian Suicide Prevention […]

Background: Psychoactive medications play an important role for the mental health and risk of suicidal behaviour in the oldest segment of the population (75+). A better understanding of psychoactive medication use is advocated to prevent suicide in this age group. Purpose: We investigated the risk of suicide associated with the use of psychoactive medications in the total […]

Background: Drug overdose accounts for most of the admissions to the emergency department. Prescription drugs, most of which are psychotropic medications, are often misused for drug overdose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between overdose in patients transported with disorders of consciousness and psychotropic medications administered prior to transport, so as to […]

Frequency and gender differences of psychiatric medication intake in a sample of suicide victims from the Athens Greater Area were investigated with a particular focus on the implications for suicide prevention. Data were collected from the toxicological analyses of the suicide cases of the period November 2007-October 2009. Information was available for 262 individuals, 196 […]

Background Civilian and military research has linked parental illness and injury with increased overall mental health care and psychiatric medication use in children. Care for specific mental health conditions and medications by child age have not been reported. Objective We sought to quantify the effect of parental illness and injury on child mental health care […]

Background Knowledge on the comparative effectiveness of pharmacological treatments to prevent suicide mortality in bipolar disorder is still lacking. Methods We studied the risk of suicide mortality during 1996–2012 among all patients who had been hospitalized due to bipolar disorder in Finland (n = 18,018; mean follow-up time 7.2 years) using nation-wide databases. We used a Cox […]

Objective Patients attempted suicide by psychotropic drug overdose and require medical care have increased, becoming a serious problem in Japan. This study investigated the characteristics of patients who attempted suicide by overdose and required emergency care, with a focus on quantity of drugs taken. Methods We conducted a clinical survey of 98 patients examined at […]

To understand medication use prior to suicide in relation to patterns, polypharmacy, and adherence. A total of 1,371 suicide cases were coded and latent class analysis used to identify combinations of medications prescribed prior to death. Two thirds had been prescribed medication with 30.7% prescribed 3 or more. Latent class analysis revealed three classes: Mixed […]

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Ketamine (Ketalar¨) is an anesthetic agent derived from the hallucinogenic drug phencyclidine (PCP). It is a high-affinity antagonist at N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and also binds to opioid mu and sigma receptors. Ketamine is being intensively investigated as an antidepressant therapy. To date, five short-term controlled studies and other open-label studies in patients with unipolar or bipolar […]

Objective: Since the advent of antidepressant drug treatment, the question of whether these substances induce suicidal ideation and behavior has not been satisfactorily answered. The aim of this study is to contribute to this ongoing discussion by taking a heuristic case-based approach to the question. Method: A large data set from a European drug surveillance […]

The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in the number and types of psychopharmacological medications that are available for the treatment of depression in children and adolescents. Parents and adolescents often raise questions as to the potential increase in suicidal ideation associated with the use of primarily selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). This […]

The association between a decline in elderly suicide rates in England & Wales & changes in the prescribing of psychotropics for the period 1985-1996 was studied. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to examine this relationship. Highly significant negative correlations were found between elderly suicide rates & tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antimanics, antipsychotics, […]

This study examined the relationship between prescribing patterns of individual psychotropic drugs & suicide rates by specific methods among the elderly. There was a negative correlation between the prescription of tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, antimanic drugs, & nonopiate analgesics & a decline in elderly suicides by poisoning, hanging, strangulation, drowning, firearms, & […]

The objective of this study was to determine if antiepileptic drugs increase the risk of suicide attempt in patients with bipolar disorder. The study included a cohort of 47,918 patients with bipolar disorder with a minimum 1-year window of information before & after the index date of their illness. Overall, there was no significant difference […]

This article discusses recently published research in other journals including a study on suicide-related events in patients treated with antiepileptic drugs. The study found that current use of antiepileptic drugs was not associated with an increased risk of suicidal behaviours among patients with epilepsy but did increase risk among patients who received these drugs & […]

This study examined whether altered prescription patterns are associated with changes in the rates of drug-related suicides in Swedish elderly. An ecological study was performed in which rates of suicide by drug poisoning were related to prescription sales of different psychotropic drugs. Rates of suicide using benzodiazepines increased despite decreasing prescription sales. Decreasing tricyclic antidepressant […]

This article reviews the literature on the toxicology of suicide. Although toxicologic investigations are considered an integral part of medical-forensic investigations in individual cases of suicide, very few American states require comprehensive toxicology on all suicide victims. Instead, subjective determinations for toxicologic testing based on local policy & individual coroner or medical examiner preference are […]

This study described substances used in overdose & the characteristics of patients admitted with medicinal drug overdose in an urban tertiary care hospital in Colombo. A descriptive study of 191 patients admitted with intentional self-poisoning was carried out. Medicinal drugs were the most common substance used in overdose. Those who used medicinal drugs were mainly […]

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