WHAT ARE THE MAJOR SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS REGARDING ANY POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN PROZAC AND SUICIDE?
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An important study undertaken in 1991 by two Harvard psychiatrists analyzed the data of twenty-seven psychiatrists who had treated a total of 1017 depressed patients with various antidepressants. They recorded how many patients were given each kind of antidepressant; how many patients in each group were suicidal before beginning therapy (the total for the entire population was about 17%); how many in each group were not suicidal; and how many in each group were not suicidal before therapy but became so afterwards. This latter finding was the real purpose of this survey. The survey reported that:
* of the 231 non-suicidal patients who took Prozac, 3.5% became suicidal after initiating therapy;
* of the 62 non-suicidal patients who took Prozac in combination with a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), 6.5% became suicidal;
* of the 385 non-suicidal patients who took a TCA alone or in combination with lithium, 1.3% became suicidal;
* of the 63 non-suicidal patients who took a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI) antidepressant, not one became suicidal;
* of the 101 non-suicidal patients who took other antidepressants, 3% became suicidal.
The differences between these groups were not statistically significant except for the group given a combination of Prozac and a TCA.
An even more extensive study investigating the possible association between Prozac and suicidal acts and thoughts was published in the British Medical Journal. This report presented a retrospective analysts of data from seventeen double-blind trials involving 3065 patients with major depressive disorder. (This included data from my original research study on 120 depressed patients.) For five or six weeks, 1765 patients were put on Prozac, 731 received a tricyclic antidepressant, and 569 were given a placebo. These trials clearly showed that Prozac
was not associated with an increased risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts. The findings include the following:
• substantial suicidal thinking emerged in 1.2% of the patients taking Prozac, 3.6% of those on a TCA, and 2.6% of those taking a placebo;
• suicidal thinking became worse with 153% of those on Prozac, 16.3% of those on a TCA, and 17.9% of those who were given a placebo;
• in most patients, suicidal thinking lessened considerably with both antidepressants. 72.0% improved on Prozac compared to 54.8% on the placebo, and 72.5% improved on the TCA vs. 69.8% on the placebo;
• the pooled incidence of suicidal acts was 03% for Prozac, 0.4% for the TCAs, and 0.2% for the placebo;
• none of these differences were considered statistically significant.
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Tags: Anti Depressants
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