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Antidepressant prescribing and suicide rate in Northern Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Christopher B Kelly ,
Tanzeel Ansari ,
Thérèse Rafferty  and
Mike Stevenson
Christopher B Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Road, BelfastBT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK
Tanzeel Ansari
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Road, BelfastBT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK
Thérèse Rafferty
Affiliation:
Regional Prescribing Information Unit, Department of Therapeutics and Pharmacology, Queen’s University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, BelfastBT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK
Mike Stevenson
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Riddel Hall, Stranmillis Road, Belfast, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: chris.kelly@bch.n-i.nhs.uk (C.B. Kelly).
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Abstract

Purpose

Although antidepressants are the most commonly used treatment for depressive illness, there is uncertainty if their use is associated with a reduction in suicide rate. Antidepressant prescribing in Northern Ireland has increased over fivefold in the decade 1989–1999. The authors sought to explore whether this increase was associated with a reduction in suicide rate taking into account social and political factors thought also to have an influence on suicide.

Materials and methods

Factors that have been suggested to influence suicide were entered into a linear regression with frequency of suicide and undetermined deaths (referred to as suicide rate) as the dependent variable. The above factors were antidepressant prescribing, unemployment rate, household alcohol expenditure and persons charged with terrorist offences. The rise in younger suicides, in recent decades, suggests this analysis should be carried out separately for younger (less than 30 years) and older (30 years and above) suicides separately. The predictors in the two models are based on aggregate data for the total group.

Result

In the younger group there was no association between antidepressant prescribing and suicide. For the older group increased antidepressant prescribing was associated with a reduction in suicide rate over the 10 years of the study.

Conclusion

Increasing antidepressant prescribing appears to be an effective strategy for reducing suicide. This has been demonstrated in older individuals.

Keywords

SuicideAntidepressantsUnemployment
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 18 , Issue 7 , November 2003 , pp. 325 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. 2003

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