Suicide and Related Matters

What causes suicide? Drugs? Guns? Ref. 1 has implicated drugs.

"On January 31, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert regarding increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior related to use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). On July 10, 2008, a Food and Drug Administration scientific advisory committee voted that, yes, there was a significant positive association between AEDs and suicidality but voted against placing a black box warning on AEDs for suicidality." (1)

Can Psychiatric Drugs Make patients Worse?

The answer to this appears to be "Yes!"

"Olanzapine has a profile similar to that of clozapine and shares its seizure-inducing potential." (3)

Olanzapine is also called Zyprexa.

Ref. 2 reports obsessive-compulsive symptoms from atypical "antipsychotics".

Can Drugs be Used to Attempt Suicide?

Of course! However, sometimes these attempts fail (4).

Suicide in Children

"In 2004, after an 18-month investigation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed pharmaceutical manufacturers to add a black box warning to antidepressants regarding increased risk of suicidality in children." (5)

Physical Drugs Can Have Psychiatric Side Effects

There was a horror story involving a wrestler named Chris Benoit. Chris took steroids to build muscles. This worked as far as building muscles, but he then shot his childen, shot his wife, and then shot himself. All three died. Steroids should never be abused like this. They can have psychiatric side effects.

Depression

Suicide is seen in depression (6) as well as in other mental disorders. Major depression is infamous for suicidality (7). "Antidepressants" are used as treatments (8), but the FDA has warned of increased suicidality from these drugs (8)! More information on this controversy is given in Ref. 9.

Biological Markers

There are reports of biological markers in suicidality (10, 11).

Conclusions

Since the drugs are so problematic, holistic approaches should be tried. Refs. 12-15 provide information on alternative treatments.

References

1. Relationship Between Antiepileptic Drugs and Suicide Attempts in Patients With Bipolar Disorder. Robert D. Gibbons, PhD; Kwan Hur, PhD; C. Hendricks Brown, PhD; J. John Mann, MD. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(12):1354-1360.

2. Association of the Glutamate Transporter Gene SLC1A1 With Atypical Antipsychotics-Induced Obsessive-compulsive Symptoms. Jun Soo Kwon, MD, PhD; Yeon Ho Joo, MD, PhD; Hee Jung Nam, MD; Meerae Lim, MD; Eun-Young Cho, MS; Myung Hun Jung, MD; Jung-Seok Choi, MD; Byungsu Kim, MD, PhD; Do-Hyung Kang, MD; Sohee Oh, MS; Taesung Park, PhD; Kyung Sue Hong, MD, PhD. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(11):1233-1241.

3. Clin Neuropharmacol. 2009 Sep-Oct;32(5):297-8. Olanzapine-induced clinical seizure: a case report. Behere RV, Anjith D, Rao NP, Venkatasubramanian G, Gangadhar BN.

4. Congenital abnormalities in children of 43 pregnant women who attempted suicide with large doses of nitrazepam. Gidai J, Acs N, Bánhidy F, Czeizel AE. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2009 Dec 8. [Epub ahead of print]

5. Pediatrics. 2009 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] News Coverage of FDA Warnings on Pediatric Antidepressant Use and Suicidality. Barry CL, Busch SH.

6. Prediction and prevention of suicide in patients with unipolar depression and anxiety. Xenia Gonda, Konstantinos N Fountoulakis, George Kaprinis, and Zoltan RihmerAnn Gen Psychiatry. 2007; 6: 23. Published online 2007 September 5. doi: 10.1186/1744-859X-6-23.

7. Isometsa ET, Henriksson MM, Aro HM, Heikkinen ME, Kuoppasalmi KI, Lonnqvist JK. Suicide in major depression. Am J Psychiatry. 1994;151:530-536.

8. Rihmer Z, Akiskal H. Do antidepressants t(h)reat(en) depressives? Toward a clinically judicious formulation of the antidepressant-suicidality FDA advisory in light of declining national suicide statistics from many countries. J Affect Disord. 2006;94:3-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2006.04.003.

9. Akiskal HS, Benazzi F, Perugi G, Rihmer Z. Agitated "unipolar" depression re-conceptualized as a depressive mixed state: implications for the antidepressant-suicide controversy. J Affect Disord. 2005;85:245-258. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2004.12.004.

10. Genome-wide association study of suicidal ideation emerging during citalopram treatment of depressed outpatients. Laje G, Allen AS, Akula N, Manji H, John Rush A, McMahon FJ. Pharmacogenet Genomics. 2009 Sep;19(9):666-74.

11. Genetic markers within glutamate receptors associated with antidepressant treatment-emergent suicidal ideation. Menke A, Lucae S, Kloiber S, Horstmann S, Bettecken T, Uhr M, Ripke S, Ising M, Müller-Myhsok B, Holsboer F, Binder EB. Am J Psychiatry. 2008 Jul;165(7):917-8.

12. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2473238/psychiatric_drug_side_effects.html

13. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2462506/psychiatric_drugs_gods_or_frauds.html

14. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2456500/depressed_mice.html

15. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2452994/how_the_government_could_save_massive.html