Antidepressants Linked to Risk of Adult Suicide

Adults taking popular antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients given a placebo, according to an analysis released Thursday of hundreds of clinical trials involving tens of thousands of patients.

The results mirror a recent finding of the Food and Drug Administration that the drugs increase suicidal thoughts and behavior among some children, and they offer tangible support to concerns going back 15 years.

The examination of 702 controlled clinical trials involving 87,650 patients is the most comprehensive look at the subject and is particularly telling because it counted suicide attempts and included patients treated for various conditions.

It was conducted by researchers at the Ottawa Health Research Institute and included McGill University scientists. It is published in the current issue of the British Medical Journal.