Anti-depressants link to suicide

Dr John Read, Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, analysed media reports of around 8,000 coroners’ inquests into suicides in England and Wales between 2003 and 2020, in which anti-depressants were mentioned. 

He found that 2,718 of people hanged themselves and 2,329 people overdosed – with 933 (40 per cent) of them overdosing on anti-depressants themselves. 

Additionally, 2,083 people had been struck by a train, lorry of other vehicle had jumped or fallen to their death, drowned, shot themselves, or been involved in a fire or electrocution.  Coroners reached a conclusive 'suicide' verdict in 3,543 cases. 

The most common drugs mentioned at the inquests were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) such as citalopram and tricyclics such as amitriptyline. These are drugs usually used to treat depression and are available in the UK. 

Most people recorded in the study were male and the average age was 41. A total of 184 people in the study were under the age of 18.  

Dr Read said

If preventing suicide is a primary reason for prescribing anti-depressants, this data set includes several thousand people for whom the drugs clearly did not work. Furthermore, about 1,000 people used the drugs that were supposed to alleviate their depression to kill themselves.  

"Systematic analyses of all inquests would be more informative. Meanwhile, reducing the overprescribing of these relatively ineffective and, for some, lethally dangerous substances is suggested, to reduce suicides."

Anti-depressants are on the rise 

In the UK, annual anti-depressant prescribing has doubled in 10 years, so that by 2017-2018, 7.3 million adults were prescribed anti-depressants that year.,  

During the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 20.5 million prescriptions of anti-depressants in England between October and December 2020 – a six per cent increase compared to the previous year.  

In the full year 2021/2022 there were 83.4 million prescriptions, to 8.3 million people, a five per cent increase, in prescriptions compared to the previous year. This means that in the UK, one in five people, around 19 per cent of the adult population, is taking anti-depressants.  

In the UK, 54 per cent of prescribed anti-depressants are SSRIs and 23 per cent are tricyclics.  

Dr Read said, “Although the newer SSRI type of antidepressants were marketed as safer than the older types (tricyclics and monoamine oxidase inhibitors) in terms of overdosing, there were many cases of SSRIs being used to kill oneself, including 86 cases involving citalopram, 41 fluoxetine and 25 sertraline. 

"SSRI antidepressants currently carry warnings that they can increase suicidality for people up to the age of 25, but some studies suggest the risk includes all age groups. 

"This study shows that not only do anti-depressants not reduce suicidality, but they also actually increase it for many, and for some they provide the mechanism for killing oneself."

The paper ‘Antidepressants and Suicide: 7,829 Inquests in England and Wales, 2003–2020’ will be published this week in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry.