Reduction in Anti-depressant Prescriptions Increased Suicide Attempts by Teens and Young Adults: Study

Researchers found a government warning on risks of anti-depressant usage in teens led to a cut in prescriptions and an increase in suicide attempts in teens and young adults.

Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against overprescription of antidepressants for teens in 2003. The wide publicity in the media led to an overcautious prescription attitude in the medical fraternity, which in turn saw an increase in incidents of suicide related deaths.

Experts from the Harvard Medical School's Department of Population Medicine and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute examined health records of 1.1 million adolescents, 1.4 million young adults and 5 million adults between 2000 and 2010. This data was studied to observe the impact of state policies and mass media on public health.

They found a year after the incident the overall prescription rates fell by over one fifth in young people. The cases of suicide attempts by overdosing on psychoactive drugs rose to 21.7 percent and nearly 33.7 percent of youngsters chose to end their lives using this method.

"This is an extraordinarily difficult public health problem, and if we don't get it right, it can backfire in serious ways," said Stephen Soumerai, co-author and professor of population medicine at the Harvard Medical School in a news release.

"These drugs can save lives. The media concentrated more on the relatively small risk than on the significant upside."

Only one percent of the patients on medications attempted suicides but the media coverage led to 20 percent decline in antidepressant use. This left many people with depression without proper treatment prompting suicidal tendencies, hospitalizations and visits to emergency departments.  

Complete suicides rarely occurred in the entire group of 7.5 million participants but suicide attempts and drug overdose led to long-term hospitalization and negatively impacted patients' lives.

"This study is a one of the first to directly measure a health outcome driven by the interaction of public policy and mass media," said Christine Lu, study author and instructor in population medicine at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

 "The FDA, the media and physicians need to find better ways to work together to ensure that patients get the medication that they need, while still being protected from potential risk."

The current study highlights the possible dangers of under-treatment of depression and anxiety by cutting down anti-depressant use and prescription to potential patients. The agency reissued a statement alerting doctor and psychiatrists about the problem of over and under prescription of antidepressant medications.

 More information is available online in the British Medical Journal.