Antidepressants and young adults

Eddie Farah

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 415

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a plan to update drug labels on antidepressants due to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in patients 24 years or younger.

The FDA further recommends that patients of all ages be carefully monitored, especially when antidepressant treatment begins.

Nearly 190 million prescriptions for antidepressant medication are dispensed in the US last year. The FDA recently completed a mass review of studies involving 100,000 patients and 11 antidepressants including Lexapro, Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil. The results of the analysis was an elevated risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior changes in the 18-25 age group range, and over all the risk appear to decline with age.

GlaxoSmithKline working with the FDA changed their warning label on Paxil to reflect it may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults.