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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Some medications can lead to disturbing changes in mood—including one we hear frequently in advertisements: suicidal thoughts. So make sure you and your loved ones are aware of this side effect. On the often-lengthy list of potential side effects caused by some medications, one of the more disturbing is “suicidal thoughts.” Ironically, antidepressant medications are among the more commonly prescribed drugs that carry the suicidal thoughts warning. Antidepressants can have this effect on teens and adults within the first few months of treatment, according to warnings issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The FDA has also received complaints about, and issued similar warnings for, a range of medications, including epilepsy drugs, the smoking cessation medication varenicline (Chantix), the influenza drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), acne medication isotretinoin (Accutane), and montelukast (Singulair), an anti-inflammatory medication used to treat allergies and prevent asthma attacks.Prescription sleep aids also may lead to suicidal thoughts in some people, says W. Vaughn McCall, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior and Case Distinguished Chair at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “These medications can have a rare paradoxical effect, like alcohol, where people start behaving completely out of character,” says Dr. McCall. “Instead of calming, they may hyperstimulate; instead of being relaxed, patients become fearful; so it goes the opposite way. We don’t know why, and we can’t pick these people out in advance.”If you or someone you know has been prescribed a medication that includes suicidal thoughts among its potential side effects, talk with your doctor about alternative treatments and warning signs that you are not tolerating the drug well.What Triggers These Thoughts?The association between certain medications and suicidal thoughts remains something of a mystery. Do the medications themselves cause suicidal thoughts—or do they boost thoughts or ideas that are already present?“We know that whether or not these drugs actually cause suicidal thought or action is a question we have to answer, but up until now, none of the clinical trials for the drugs were set up to address the question,” says Kelly Posner, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Suicide Risk Assessment at Columbia University. “Either way we have to get the right answers. It’s critical to know about drugs that pose risk, but debunking false notions of risk is equally important to the public health.’’It’s important to keep in mind that suicidal thoughts and actual suicides that
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