American Journal of Psychiatry published a Letter to the Editor by leading psychiatrists Mark Olfson and David Shaffer entitled, “SSRI Prescriptions and the Rate of Suicide,” about the connection between black box suicide warnings on antidepressants and suicide rates. In the letter they actually argue against an earlier study that alleged that the black box warning resulted in an increase in suicides. CCHR had sent a DA of this study to a New York Times reporter, after which the NYT published an article strongly refuting the study. The Shaffer/ Olfson letter to the editor uses data from this NYT article, namely that the suicide statistics in the study were from 2003-04, and that the decreasing antidepressant prescriptions after the black box warning (at the end of 04) should be compared with suicide statistics from 2004-05 (after the warning.) Shaffer/Olfson note that preliminary suicide statistics from after the black box warning (04-05) show suicides among young people actually decreased. The authors also note that the warnings were associated with an increase in prescriptions of non-SSRI antidepressants to youth as physicians searched for alternative treatments, and that “The effects of the warnings on the use of antipsychotic medications and other psychotropic medications remain poorly defined.” The authors write that it is risky to draw conclusions from year-to-year fluctuations in antidepressants prescriptions and suicide statistics.
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