A new study shows that children and teenagers who take common antidepressant medications are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not undergoing such therapy. A team of researchers from the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City conducted a study on about 5,500 children and teenagers with ages ranging from 6 to 18.

All the participants in the trial had received antidepressant treatment. The kids and pre-adults investigated in the study were found to be 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide and 15 times more likely to succeed in their suicidal attempt than regular youngsters who had not been treated with any depressants.

Dr. Mark Olfson, who led the study, professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute stated: "This reinforces what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been warning about for the last couple of years." He warned: "Parents and teachers and health care professionals should pay close attention to changes in mood and actions of depressed children and take them seriously if they do report that they feel more anxious or restless or develop thoughts of wanting to harm themselves."
Study's results also showed that children most likely to try committing suicide were those who were taking antidepressant medications after a hospitalization period. Nevertheless, those who were at highest risk from having such an attempt were children and teenagers who were taking for the first time drugs to treat depression.

Previous studies that looked at the connection between antidepressant treatments and teenagers' suicide rates only investigated their early thoughts and actions. "Here, we're focusing on things that are at the far more severe end of the spectrum. Kids coming into the emergency room following suicide attempts and those who actually die. These are things that are many, many times less common, thankfully, than the sorts of things that have been studied," said Dr. Mark Olfson.

Research findings showed that adults who take antidepressants are not at such high risk of attempting to commit suicide. Also, the medical team came to the conclusion that not all antidepressants can have the harmful effect upon a kid's behavior. Suicidal attempts are only linked to some specific antidepressant treatments and the suicide incidence can be influenced by the amount of antidepressants taken by subjects.

"In order to be due to the depression, there would have to be differences in depression between groups. I can't completely exclude that possibility, and those that are more severely ill get more medications, but I think if depression were responsible, we would expect to find the same kind of relationships in adults. The fact that we see it with kids should raise our concern about this risk," said Dr. Olfson.