Variation in the Risk of Suicide Attempts and Completed Suicides by Antidepressant Agent in Adults: a Propensity Score-Adjusted Analysis of 9 Years’ Data

The risk of suicide & suicide attempts associated with individual antidepressant drugs was assessed in British Columbia adults who had antidepressant therapy initiated & a recorded diagnosis of depression. In a population of 287,543 adults, outcome rates ranging from 4.41/1000 person-years to 9.09/1000 person-years were observed. Most events occurred in the first 6 months after treatment initiation. After extensive propensity score adjustment, no clinically meaningful variation in the risk of suicide & suicide attempt between antidepressant agents compared with fluoxetine hydrochloride initation was found. Findings from this study support the Food & Drug Administration’s decision to treat all antidepressants alike in their advisory. (48 refs.) JA