Use of calcium channel blockers and risk of suicide

BMJ 1998;317:1076 ( 17 October )

Letters

Use of calcium channel blockers and risk of suicide

Independent studies are needed before causality is established

Drug prescriptions over longer period should have been followed up

Prescriptions for particular drug are influenced by numerous factors

Authors' reply

Independent studies are needed before causality is established

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Lindberg et al suggested that the use of calcium channel blockers increases the risk of suicide.¹ Methodologicalproblems, however, render that conclusion uncertain. In a crosssectional ecological study they found a weak but significant correlationbetween rates of suicide and use of calcium channel blockers,expressed as numbers of defined daily doses dispensed by pharmaciesin 152 municipalities in Sweden. The defined daily dose is, however,a technical unit for studies of use of drugs²; defined dailydoses might differ twofold or more from the daily doses actuallyprescribed. Therefore, when used for other purposes, such as anestimate of individuals at risk (as in Lindberg et al's paper),methods based on the defined daily dose require validation.³

The authors also carried out a historical cohort study of patients with an index prescription of an antihypertensive drug.They found that "five users of calcium channel blockers (three. . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

Gasse, C., Derby, L. E, Vasilakis, C., Jick, H. (2000). Risk of suicide among users of calcium channel blockers: population based, nested case-control study. BMJ 320: 1251-1251 [Full text]