Antidepressants & Suicide, FDA Warns
The FDA has warned that children and adults taking antidepressants can become
suicidal in the first weeks of therapy and that physicians should watch patients
closely when first giving the drugs or changing dosages. The FDA is asking
drug manufacturers to place explicit warnings about the drugs' side effects,
including the risk of suicide, on their labels.
Comment: This action by the FDA in issuing a broad warning
is most unusual. The FDA has traditionally based its
decisions on convincing evidence. But there is still no convincing evidence linking antidepressants
and suicide. (Congress has been pressuring the FDA to take a stand on this issue.) Whether
scientifically warranted or not, the FDA's warning is a good reminder
that antidepressants are not without risks.
Barbara K. Hecht,
Ph.D.
Frederick Hecht, M.D.
Medical Editors, MedicineNet.com
Depression & Suicide
Antidepressants to carry warning
FDA Issues Public Health Advisory on Cautions
for Use of Antidepressants in Adults and Children
The Food and Drug Administration today issued a Public Health Advisory that
provides further cautions to physicians, their patients, and families and
caregivers of patients about the need to closely monitor both adults and
children with depression, especially at the beginning of treatment, or when the
doses are changed with either an increase or decrease in the dose.
FDA has been closely reviewing the results of antidepressant studies in
children, since June 2003, after an initial report on studies with paroxetine
(Paxil), and subsequent reports on studies of other drugs, appeared to suggest
an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions in the children given
antidepressants. There were no suicides in any of the trials. On close
examination of the initial reports, it was unclear whether certain behaviors
reported in these studies represented actual suicide attempts, or other
self-injurious behavior that was not suicide-related.
FDA has initiated a full review of these reported behaviors by experts in
such evaluation. However, it is not yet clear whether antidepressants contribute
to the emergence of suicidal thinking and behavior. The agency is advising
clinicians, patients, families and caregivers of adults and children that they
should closely monitor all patients being placed on therapy with these drugs for
worsening depression and suicidal thinking, which can occur during the early
period of treatment. The agency is also advising that these patients be observed
for certain behaviors that are known to be associated with these drugs, such as
anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility,
impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania, and mania, and that
physicians be particularly vigilant in patients who may have bipolar disorder.
FDA is asking manufacturers to change the labels of ten drugs to include
stronger cautions and warnings about the need to monitor patients for the
worsening of depression and the emergence of suicidal ideation, regardless of
the cause of such worsening.
The drugs under review include bupropion, citalopram, fluoxetine,
fluvoxamine, mirtazapine, nefazodone, paroxetine, sertraline, escitalopram and
venlafaxine. It should be noted that the only drug that has received approval
for use in children with major depressive disorder is fluoxetine (Prozac).
Several of these drugs are approved for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive
disorder in pediatric patients, i.e., sertraline (Zoloft), fluoxetine (Prozac),
and fluvoxamine (Luvox). Luvox is not approved as an antidepressant in the
United States.
These interim actions follow recommendations made by FDA's
Psychopharmacologic Drugs and Pediatric Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs
Advisory Committees, which met on February 2, 2004. The advisory committee
members advised FDA that the labeling should draw more attention to the need to
monitor patients being treated with certain antidepressants.
FDA has previously noted (on Oct. 27, 2003) the possible finding of increased
suicidal thinking or behavior, but emphasized that it was not clear that the
drugs caused such events and additional analyses were being done to allow FDA to
seek more definitive answers.
Source: FDA Talk Paper TO4-08, March 22, 2004
Last Editorial Review: 3/23/2004
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