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

Letter

Antidepressant prescribing and suicide

Decline in suicide rate among older people predates 1991

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

EDITOR—Hall et al say that the association they observed between antidepressant prescribing and suicide may reflect increased recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of depression by general practitioners as much as any pharmacological effects of antidepressants.1 The time scale they took into account was the decade 1991-2000. If they are right in their conjecture, the processes involved must have started some 60 or 70 years ago, if not in Australia then in the United States.

In the United States a steady decline in the suicide rate of people aged 65 and over has been well documented: from 45.3 per 100 000 in 1933 (this is the earliest year for which suicide data for all of the United States are available) to 21.5 per 100 000 in 1986.2 Murphy and Wetzel showed the same decline for 1940-75.3 The table, presenting age specific suicide rates in white men in five year . . . [Full text of this article]

Thomas J Verberne, clinical neuropsychologist

14 Crampton Crescent, Rosanna, Victoria 3084, Australia verberne@melbpc.org.au


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Relevant Article

Association between antidepressant prescribing and suicide in Australia, 1991-2000: trend analysis
Wayne D Hall, Andrea Mant, Philip B Mitchell, Valerie A Rendle, Ian B Hickie, and Peter McManus
BMJ 2003 326: 1008. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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