• DOI:10.1176/APPI.AJP.160.4.790
• Corpus ID: 20755149

Suicide rates in clinical trials of SSRIs, other antidepressants, and placebo: analysis of FDA reports.

@article{Khan2003SuicideRI,
  title={Suicide rates in clinical trials of SSRIs, other antidepressants, and placebo: analysis of FDA reports.},
  author={Arif Khan and Shirin R F Khan and Russell L. Kolts and Walter Armin Brown},
  journal={The American journal of psychiatry},
  year={2003},
  volume={160 4},
  pages={
          790-2
        }
}

• Arif Khan, S. Khan, +1 author W. Brown
• Published 1 April 2003
• Psychology, Medicine
• The American journal of psychiatry

OBJECTIVE
Previous reports suggesting that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use is associated with increased suicidal risk have not assessed completed suicides. The authors analyzed reports from randomized controlled trials to compare suicide rates among depressed patients assigned to an SSRI, other antidepressants, or placebo.

METHOD
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) summary reports of the controlled clinical trials for nine modern FDA-approved antidepressants provided data for comparing rates of suicide.

RESULTS
Of 48,277 depressed patients participating in the trials, 77 committed suicide. Based on patient exposure years, similar suicide rates were seen among those randomly assigned to an SSRI (0.59%, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.31%-0.87%), a standard comparison antidepressant (0.76%, 95% CI=0.49%-1.03%), or placebo (0.45%, 95% CI=0.01%-0.89%).

CONCLUSIONS
These findings fail to support either an overall difference in suicide risk between antidepressant- and placebo-treated depressed subjects in controlled trials or a difference between SSRIs and either other types of antidepressants or placebo.