FDA Advisory on Suicidality: Linked With Decline in Treatment of Pediatric Depression?

First published in Psychiatry Weekly, Volume 2, Issue 27, on July 16, 2007

A new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry notes a correlation between the FDA’s 2003 public health advisory regarding suicidality in pediatric patients taking SSRIs for depression and a decline in diagnosis and treatment of this patient population. Researchers examined a large (N=65,349) pediatric cohort with newly diagnosed episodes of depression from 1998 to 2005. Diagnoses of depression in this patient population increased from 3 to 5 per 1,000 between 1999 and 2004, but fell off to 1999 levels after the FDA advisory. Pediatric patients with diagnosed depression were 3 times less likely to be prescribed an antidepressant after the advisory as was predicted by pre-advisory trends. No concurrent increase in alternative treatments was noted.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/6/884

-PC