Antidepressants in Children and Adolescents

Antidepressants may have similar suicide risk in children, adolescents.
HealthDay (4/12, Reinberg) reported that, according to a study published online April 12 in the journal Pediatrics, "there appears to be no difference among antidepressants in raising a kid's risk of suicidal thoughts."
Harvard School of Public Health researchers "collected data on 20,906 children aged 10 to 18 who had been diagnosed with depression in British Columbia," following the children for nine years. The young participants "were on a variety of commonly prescribed antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft)."
Medscape (4/12, Brooks) reported, "During the first 12 months of treatment, the researchers identified 266 attempted and three completed suicides -- an event rate of 27.04 suicidal acts per 1000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.9 – 30.5 suicidal acts per 1,000 person-years)." However, "they failed to see any significant differences in rate ratios (RRs) in analyses comparing fluoxetine with citalopram (RR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.54 – 1.76), fluvoxamine (RR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.46 – 2.43), paroxetine (RR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.47 – 1.37), and sertraline (RR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.56 – 1.84)."