Decrease in Suicide Among the Individuals Treated With Antidepressants: a Controlled Study of Antidepressants in Suicide, Sweden 1995-2005

This study tested, on the individual level, the hypothesis that treatment with antidepressant medication has been a substantially contributing cause of the decrease in suicide. Time trends in the detection of antidepressants & 5 control medications in the forensic toxicological screening of 16,937 suicides & 33,426 controls in Sweden, 1995-2005, were analyzed. The expected number of antidepressant-positive suicides in 2005 was 509 if the hypothesis was true & 603 if it was false. The observed number was 420. The control medications were detected to the extent that was expected if not preventing suicide. (40 refs.) JA