SSRIs: review of suicide tendency
A WARNING that patients should be closely monitored
for suicidal tendencies during the early stages of treatment with selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been added to the summary of
product characteristics for Seroxat (paroxetine). The SPCs for other SSRIs
are also currently being updated.
A spokesman for the Medicines Control Agency said
that the Committee on Safety of Medicines had reviewed available data
and concluded that a relationship between SSRIs and suicidal behaviour
could not be made. However because of continued anecdotal reports, the
CSM has recommended that the issue should be monitored.
Speaking to The Journal on 10 July, a spokesman
for GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Seroxat, said that the company and
other SSRI manufacturers had been working with the MCA on the amendments
to SPCs and patient information leaflets. The company says that the possibility
of a suicide attempt is inherent in depression and can persist until significant
therapeutic effect is achieved. “Controlled studies of the relationship
between suicide and paroxetine have not provided any evidence that the
drug causes suicide. On the contrary, these studies demonstrate that paroxetine
reduces newly emergent suicidal thoughts and may reduce suicide and suicide
attempts,” it says.
GSK says that the update is not a reaction to the
recent US court case in which the jury determined that treatment with
paroxetine had influenced the behaviour of a patient who had murdered
his family and committed suicide. The company is appealing against the
verdict, it says.
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