4 Troubled Teens Blog

If teenagers are admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward because of a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation, they are much less likely to be readmitted if his doctor prescribes antidepressant drugs.

• Dr. Cynthia Fonanella of Ohio State University studied 318 teenagers admitted to three Maryland hospitals because of suicide problems.
  
• One in four were prescribed three or more medications, and these teenagers were 2.6 times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days.
  
• However, this group also had the most severe problems. The group prescribed antidepressants improved their chances of not being readmitted by 85 percent.

The use of antidepressant drugs in adolescence has been under fire ever since the Federal Food and Drug Administration put warning labels on these drugs. The labels said that using antidepressants could actually increase the possibility of a teenager committing suicide.

There has been an increase in teenage suicides since the warning labels went into place.

The study appeared in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy.

Labels: antidepressants, suicide, medications

Posted By: Aspen/CRC