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In Reply to: How many Family suicides were on SSRI's? posted by Repost From NDN on February 16, 2006 at 15:55:03:
The research on SSRIs doesn't show a causal relationship between taking an SSRI and the "creation" of suicidal thoughts.
Suicidal thoughts are a symptom of depression, whether or not a person uses an SSRI. What SSRIs do is raise the vitality level in depressed people to the point they actually have the ability to focus on developing a plan to kill themselves and the energy to carry out the plan. This is particularly problematic in adolescents, who are more likely to carry out a suicide plan on SSRIs because of due to the poor judgement and impulse control that characterize the adolescent phase of development.
The use of SSRIs without careful monitoring of symptoms and evidence-based talk therapy is dangerous. Unfortunately, SSRIs are prescribed every day by general practitioners who are not trained in psychiatric best practices. This happens because the pharmaceutical companies drive the prescribing practices of MDs. It's basically a case of malpractice when SSRIs are prescribed without appropriate symptom monitoring, disease management education, and other therapeutic supports such as Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy.
When the appropriate treatment protocols & evidence-based practices are used in conjuction with SRRIs, this class of anti-depressant medications can and do help people with clinical depression recover from a debilitating brain disease. Left untreated, major depressive disorder takes a lot more lives due to suicide than does the inappropriate prescriptive use of SSRIs.
