SSRI antidepressants cause some people (3 to 5 percent) to experience a suicide related side effects. These suicide side effects of antidepressants include suicidal thoughts, suicidal gestures (typically cutting of the body), suicide attempts and actual death by suicide.

People being treated with SSRI antidepressants have become violent and suicidal. Others have complained of severe withdrawal reactions.

The FDA in March 2004 issued a warning for SSRI antidepressants, stating that these antidepressants can cause suicide and violence in children and teenagers. This FDA public health advisory places doctors, patients and families on notice to be particularly vigilant for signs of worsening depression or suicide thoughts at the beginning of antidepressant therapy or whenever the dose is changed.

The drugs listed in the FDA warning are all newer antidepressants: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Celexa, Remeron, Lexapro, Luvox, Serzone and Wellbutrin.

The FDA action follows Britain's version of the FDA citing in December 2003 evidence of a twofold to threefold increase risk of suicide and suicidal thinking in children and adolescents with the SSRI antidepressants.

These two agency actions follow 16 years of long-standing controversy about the possibility that SSRI antidepressants might induce suicide tendencies in some patients. Reports of unusual and severe reactions with SSRI antidepressant drugs began shortly after Prozac, the first SSRI antidepressant, was introduced in 1988.

In 1990 two Harvard researchers and psychiatrists published an article entitled: "Emergence of Intense Suicidal Preoccupation During Fluoxetine Treatment." This article, which appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry reported that persistent, obsessive, and violent suicidal thoughts emerged in a minority of patients treated with fluoxetine (Prozac)

Yale psychiatrist Dr. Robert A. King researched SSRI antidepressant-induced suicide risk in1991. His peer-reviewed article, �Emergence of Self-Destructive Phenomena in Children and Adolescents during Fluoxetine Treatment,� stated that �self-injurious ideation or behavior appeared de novo or intensified during fluoxetine (Prozac) treatment.�

Antidepressant manufacturers and the medical community have been aware that antidepressants increases the risk of suicide for a long time. Despite the numerous studies linking increased suicide risk with antidepressants, antidepressant manufacturers continued to refute these claims.

As the suicide debate bubbles, so does the debate among doctors and researchers about the effectiveness of antidepressants.

Most studies find that antidepressants are no more effective in fighting teenage depression than sugar pills. Even in adults, antidepressants have been found to offer only modest benefits. In about half of all adult tests, the drugs prove no more effective than placebos 

These modest benefits are found in published studies. Researchers have not been able to analyze a large amount of the data because unfavorable studies are not made public.

GlaxoSmithKline, for instance, acknowledged that just one of its nine studies of Paxil in children and adolescents has been published. The one published study made only passing mention of suicide and concluded that the drug was effective against depression. According to the FDA, the combined results of all nine trials show that the drug is not effective against depression in patients under 18.

Unpublished studies of Effexor, for example, suggested the drug increased suicide-related events such as suicidal thoughts or attempts by 14 times compared with placebo.

Other drug companies similarly have withheld negative studies of antidepressants, claiming that the studies are �trade secrets.� With negative results not disclosed, physicians often believe the drugs are more effective and safer than they actually are.

SSRI antidepressants have been found to increase the risk of suicide. SSRI antidepressants are found to be no more effective than a sugar pill. In addition to that, all pharmaceutical drugs cause side effects ranging from mild to life-threatening.

In addition to the increased suicide risk, antidepressants can cause serious side effects. Weight gain and sexual dysfunction are common antidepressant side effects. Many antidepressants can also cause addiction and subsequent withdrawal symptoms.

The natural antidepressant Deprex safely and effectively relieves depression symptoms without side effects commonly associated with pharmaceutical medications.

Do not stop taking antidepressants without first talking to your doctor. Your doctor may need to gradually reduce the dose before stopping antidepressants completely. Suddenly stopping antidepressants may cause unpleasant and potentially serious side effects.

*This antidepressant drug information does not endorse antidepressants, diagnose patients or recommend therapy. The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible warnings, uses, precautions, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse side effects of antidepressants. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your health care provider or pharmacist. The information provided should not be construed to indicate that antidepressants is safe, effective or appropriate.