Researchers elsewhere are working to further clarify the links, if any, between antidepressant use and suicide ideation.
On Thursday, scientists led by Dr. John March, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, announced the launch of a large-scale safety registry tracking antidepressant use by children and youth.
In its first study, the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Trials Network (CAPTN) hopes to follow the outcomes of 2,420 children and adolescents prescribed either an SSRI or another type of drug, a serontonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) to help treat depression, anxiety disorders, and other psychiatric woes. A subset study will examine gene variants associated with an increase in either the benefits or side effects of psychiatric medicines in young users.
The CAPTN effort is funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
More information
There is more on suicide prevention at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
SOURCES: Gonzalo Laje, M.D., associate clinical investigator, National Institute of Mental Health; Michael Slifer, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, University of Miami Institute for Human Genomics; Sept. 227, 2007, news release, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.; October 2007, American Journal of Psychiatry
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