Studies of Adult Suicidality

Bost and Kemp (1992) reviewed a series of coroner s reports in Dallas, Texas, involving 15 suicides associated with fluoxetine treatment. The study covered a 9-month period. While they appreciated that their data were impressionistic, they warned that the proportion of patients taking fluoxetine and committing suicide was high enough to be of concern to health care providers. 

NIMH Confirms That SSRIs Cause Suicidality 

On November 13, 2006, NIMH announced a new NIMH initiative aimed at studying the connection between SSRIs and suicidality and in the process made clear that consensus exists within the psychiatric establishment that SSRI antidepressants cause suicidality. NIMH director Thomas Insel, M.D., was quoted These new multi-year projects will clarify the connection between SSRI use and suicidality and they will help determine why and how SSRIs may trigger suicidal thinking and behavior in some people but not others, and may lead to new tools that will help us screen for those who are most vulnerable.  

---