Can antidepressants induce suicidal thoughts?

Do Antidepressants trigger suicide?

Over the past 30 years, there have been many isolated reports that certain anti depressants may induce suicidal thoughts and self-destructive behaviors. Almost all manufacturers who make anti depressants even add warnings to the packages about worsening of depression and triggering of suicides. The question that has always been difficult to answer is whether antidepressants actually induce suicidal thoughts or these thoughts are just a part of under treated depression.

One recent large study from Europe suggests that antidepressants infrequently trigger suicidal thoughts or destructive behaviors. This large study covering more than 300,000 patients treated in psychiatric hospitals in several European countries.

The researchers only discovered 33 patients who had thoughts of wanting to commit suicide that doctors thought were "possibly" or "probably" related to the anti depressant medication.

Moreover, many experts caution against reading too much into this study. The majority of European drug surveillance programs are funded by pharmaceutical companies and there is always a question about reliability of such studies. In fact, many researchers often tend to minimize harmful effects of drugs, especially when the study is paid by the drug company. 

Said Dr Healy, “Whether antidepressant drugs trigger any suicidal behavior is not in question. This is a problem that is caused by the drugs and the study confirms that the link exists. The only argument is about how frequently it's happening.”