WASHINGTON – Food and Drug Administration
issued a second public warning Friday that adults who use
antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide,
especially when they first start the pills or change a dose.
Much of the concern over suicide and antidepressants has centered
on children who use the drugs. The FDA last fall determined there is
a real, but small, increase in risk of suicidal behavior for children
and ordered the labels of all antidepressants to say so.
A year ago, the FDA issued a warning that adults, too, may be at
increased risk. The agency began reanalyzing hundreds of studies of
the drugs to try to determine if that's the case, and told makers to
add or strengthen suicide-related warnings on their labels in the
meantime.
Since then, several new studies have been published in
medical journals about a possible connection. Citing them, FDA issued
a new public health advisory reminding doctors and patients to watch
closely for suicidal thinking or worsening depression and seek
medical care if it happens.
...[T]here are concerns that antidepressants may cause agitation,
anxiety and hostility in a subset of patients who may be unusually prone
to rare side effects....
In addition to the advisory, the FDA also updated its Web site with
a notice about a higher-than-expected rate of suicide attempts in
research with the nation's newest antidepressant,
Eli Lilly's Cymbalta. Those studies were in women trying Cymbalta
as an incontinence treatment; it was never approved for that use.
