Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) lower the risk of a suicide attempt in adults with depression including those as young as 18 to 25 years, according to an article in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

"The risk of suicide attempt among depressed patients treated with SSRI drugs was about one third that of patients who were not treated with an SSRI," said lead author Robert Gibbons, director of the Center for Health Statistics and Professor of biostatistics and psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We would not expect a lower risk in this patient population because patients treated with SSRIs are generally more severely depressed and would have a higher risk of suicide attempt."

The researchers analyzed medical data of 226,866 patients newly diagnosed with depression in 2003 or 2004 in the Veterans Administration healthcare system. They compared risk of suicide in four age groups (ages 18 to 25; 26 to 45; 46 to 65; and older than 65) before and after treatment with an antidepressant in that class.

All age groups of depressed patients who received selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medication -- showed a significantly lower risk of suicide attempt when compared with those who did not receive antidepressant treatment.

Among 82,828 patients, there were 183 suicide attempts before antidepressant treatment and 102 suicide attempts after treatment (a rate that fell from 221 to 123 per 100,000 after treatment).

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a black box warning suggesting that the same class of drugs increased risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents. An advisory committee recently recommended extending this black box warning to young adults.

Gibbons cautioned that extending a warning to young adults may further decrease antidepressant treatment of depression and contribute to higher rates of suicide. In previous research, Gibbons reported an inverse relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the rates of suicide in children and adolescents.