FDA Warnings for Antidepressant Use Among Teens Backfire, Suicide Attempts Rise

In 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warnings about antidepressant use among teenagers, and although prescriptions for these medications dropped, suicide attempts sharply rose following the FDA announcement.

Lead author Christine Lu and other researchers at the Harvard Medical School conducted a study involving 7.5 million participants aged 10 to 64 years of age before and after the FDA warnings were issued in 2003-2004. The researchers determined that the FDA's warnings for teenagers' use of antidepressants weren't at all effective.

Drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil were specifically noted by the government agency. They said that adolescents' use of these drugs might increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or actual suicide attempts. As a result, antidepressant use among adolescents dropped 31% and also 24% among young adults two years after the FDA warnings. Prior to the warnings, only 2% of teens and 4% of young adults were prescribed these drugs.

Over the same two-year period, suicide attempts involving tranquilizers and other psychotropic drugs increased 21.7% for teens and 33.7% for young adults. The researchers believe this is a result of doctors and parents not considering the drugs to treat their patients and children for depression because the FDA warnings disinclined them to do so.

"This was a huge worldwide event in terms of the mass media," said co-author Stephen Soumerai of the Harvard Medical School, in this NPR article. "Many of the media reports actually emphasized an exaggeration of the warnings. The warnings were well-intentioned but people were concerned that the ferocity of the messages might affect clinicians, parents and young people in a way that would reduce needed medications."

The study, "Changes in Antidepressant Use by Young People and Suicidal Behavior After FDA Warning and Media Coverage: Quasi-Experimental Study," was published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday. The researchers hope that their research will help reduce such unintended consequences as a result of FDA warnings and media reporting. A number doctors and parents should have used their own discretion when considering antidepressants for a teenager instead of adhering to a mere government agency warning.