...the debate over whether antidepressants can ‘cause’ suicide has been ongoing for well over a decade. In Listening to Prozac (1993), Peter D. Kramer pointed out that between 1%-5% of all depressed patients “experience a paradoxical worsening of suicidal thoughts on any antidepressant.” Clinical studies of the ‘new generation’ antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs—Celexa, Effexor, Lexapro, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft) report an average “dropout rate” of 5%. Dropouts are those taken off the medication (and generally excluded from the final data) due to an experience of increased agitation, anxiety, or akathisia (characterized by extreme physical restlessness). These side effects fall under the category ‘increased activation’ and have some researchers worried that antidepressants may give rise to the “roll back phenomenon” in depressed patients—the medication may give certain people the boost needed to act upon suicidal thoughts which required too much energy of them while in a depressive state. 

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06.27.04: This page is born. 3 hours of work and I'm pooped. More to come. I'll add to this as much as I can until I make myself sick of this ridiculous topic.


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