Suicide Risk Analysis Among Patients Assigned to Psychotropics and Placebo

Based on available data, it is unclear if the suicide risk is significantly different among clinical trial patients assigned to psychotropics compared with patients assigned to placebo, among patients with various psychiatric diagnoses. This study was conducted to investigate whether patients assigned to psychotropics would have a similar suicide risk, as measured by the frequency of completed suicides and suicide attempts, compared to those patients assigned to placebo. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration database of controlled clinical trials for 9 antidepressants, 3 antipsychotics, and 7 anxiolytics provided data for comparing suicides and suicide attempts among 46,575 patients assigned to psychotropics or placebo. The Poisson Regression analysis suggested that there were no significant differences in rates of suicide and suicide attempts among patients assigned to psychotropics or placebo. These findings suggest that the high suicide risk among clinical trial participants is not significantly affected by psychotropics. Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 2006;39(1):6-14.