Antidepressant prescribing and suicide: Analysis is  misleading

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7409.288

BMJ 2003;327:288 (2 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7409.288

Letter

Antidepressant prescribing and suicide

Analysis is misleading

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

EDITOR—Hall et al's data on suicide rates and antidepressantprescribing contradict their own conclusions.¹ The conventionaland intuitive way of analysing trends in rates of antidepressant use by age group would be to look at ratios of rates of usein 1998-2001 and 1990-1.

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Data on bmj.com show that rates increased 7.5 times for menaged 25-34 and 2.1 times for men aged 75-84. Spearman correlationsusing these ratios for all age groups and the difference insuicide rates as defined by Hall et al showed a strong positivecorrelation. Increases in suicide rates were associated withhigher rates of increase in the use of antidepressants. Formen, Spearman's correlation coefficient was r_s = 0.86, P =0.007; for women, r_s = 0.76, P = 0.03.

Hall et al seem to have analysed absolute differences in ratesof prescribing. The use of daily dependent dose is also problematic. . . [Full text of this article]

Joanna Moncrieff, senior lecturer

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University College London, London W1N 8AA joanna.moncrieff@nelmht.nhs.uk

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