Prospective Study of Fluoxetine Treatment and Suicidal Behavior in Affectively ill Subjects

It is hypothesized that there is no elevation in risk of suicidal behavior associated with the use of fluoxetine. The analyses included data on 643 subjects who were followed up; nearly 30% were treated with fluoxetine at some point. Results do not support the speculation that fluoxetine increases the risk of suicide. Rather, there was a nonsignificant reduction in risk of suicidal behaviour among patients treated with fluoxetine, even though they were more severely ill before treatment.