A stubborn behaviour: The failure of antidepressants to reduce suicide rates

Summary Over the past decades the rate of completed suicide has remained quite stable, that of suicide attempts even seems to have increased (to the extent it has been studied in defined regions). These are puzzling observations, since depression is the major suicide precursor and since antidepressants over the years have been increasingly used in the treatment of depression. These observations have not attracted sufficient attention, possibly because they do not accord with consensus opinions about depression treatment in psychiatry today. In this paper a number of possible explanations are discussed. They not only deserve but are definitely in need of systematic investigation.