The relationship between the prescription of psychotropic drugs and suicide rates in older people in England and Wales

Abstract

The findings may be due to methodological flaws. However, if they are genuine, then the following approaches require consideration to further reduce suicide rates: (1) development of strategies to ensure continued prescription of psychotropic drugs at the current level; (2) development of strategies to improve non-pharmacological measures, including improved mental health services provision for older people, improved assessment of suicide risk, increased availability of psychosocial interventions and restricting the availability of methods of suicide; and (3) development of strategies to implement improvement in distal risk (e.g. societal socio-economic status) and protective (e.g. societal educational attainment) factors for suicide at a societal level.

Mortality during US FDA clinical trials in patients with diabetes, hypertension, depression and schizophrenia

“…There is some evidence supporting the notion that the mortality risk among patients with psychiatric illnesses may be decreased by psychotropics (Haukka et al 2008;Shah et al 2014;Khan et al 2013;Pompili et al 2016;Reutfors et al 2016). On the other hand, the evidence is also mixed (Weinmann et al 2009;Hayes et al 2015;Wimberley et al 2017) and inconclusive (Takeuchi et al 2016;Zivin et al 2016).…”

Association between Prescribing and Intoxication Rates for Selected Psychotropic Drugs: A Longitudinal Observational Study

“…Previous studies have also compared the number of intoxication events with the prescribing rates of psychotropic drugs [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 , 12 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Suicide or suicide attempt rates have been compared to psychotropic prescribing in several countries [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. However, no direct quantitative comparison of the overall risk for intoxication with psychotropic drugs from different groups has been performed in relation to their prescribing rates.…”