Suicidal behaviour linked to mental health drugs
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide. Since suicidal behaviour is greatest among adolescents and young adults aged between 15 and 24, preventative measures for this age group are a priority. Diagnosing suicide risk is complicated, however, in patients receiving drug treatment. For example, some antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs have been linked to increased suicidal thoughts. The EU-funded STOP (Suicidality: treatment occurring in paediatrics) project developed a web-based tool to assess and monitor medication-related suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. Such behaviours include having suicidal thoughts and planning, attempting or committing suicide. Researchers devised a way to distinguish between suicidal behaviour caused by medication and that caused by psychological factors, based on symptoms and time course. Medication-related suicidality is recognised through an abrupt onset, absence of suicidal thoughts prior to the start of medication and emergence of suicidal behaviour after treatment. To develop their tool, researchers assessed over 1 000 children and adolescents aged between 8 and 18 who were on different treatment regimens. These included two types of antipsychotic drugs, an antidepressant drug, and non-medicated behavioural therapy for depression, asthma medication and healthy controls. Based on their assessments, researchers developed a predictive model containing a suicidality scale that both parents and clinicians can use to monitor children on medication. After using the tool, parents became more aware of potential warning signs and indications when their children started taking new medication. In addition, clinicians reported that an electronic tool was a useful way to monitor suicidal tendencies of young adults in routine clinical care. Regulatory authorities, researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical and mental health professionals can also use STOP's predictive online tool to detect and manage medication-related suicidality. Improved surveillance may save countless lives by allowing parents and clinicians to intervene, treat and prevent suicidal behaviour before it is too late.
Keywords
Suicidal behaviour, mental health, children and adolescents, suicide, medication-related suicidality
