Researchers look at antidepressants and risk of suicide among kids

Which is more likely to push a depressed child to suicide: not taking antidepressant drugs or taking antidepressant drugs?

Medical experts have struggled with this question at least since 1990 when Harvard researchers reported that six people developed suicidal feelings soon after taking Prozac (fluoxetine). This was the first of the now widely prescribed serotonin drugs to ease depression. Called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, such medications ease the problems of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behavior by decreasing the activity of a brain chemical known to affect moods.

Despite the 1990 reports, doctors had, by 2002, begun prescribing these drugs for children and adolescents. “The Food and Drug Administration had not granted specific approval for this, but ‘off-label’ prescribing is a common and accepted practice,” notes an article in the July issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. In 2003, the FDA went ahead and approved Prozac for treating depression in people 18 years and younger.