Citation

Leon AC, Marzuk PM, Tardiff K, Bucciarelli A, Markham Piper K, Galea S. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2006; 45(9): 1054-1058.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Drs. Leon and Tardiff are with the Department of Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/01.chi.0000227875.12286.a2

PMID

16926612

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: To determine the proportion of youth suicides in New York City from 1999 to 2002 in which antidepressants were detected at autopsy. METHOD:: This is a medical examiner surveillance study of suicides in New York City among those younger than 18 years of age. The outcome measure is serum toxicology for antidepressants. RESULTS:: From 1999 through 2002, there were 41 individuals younger than 18 years of age among residents of New York City who committed suicide. Thirty-six(87.8%) had a serum toxicological analysis and an injury death interval of 3 days or less. There was one (2.8%) suicide in which both buproprion and sertraline were detected at the time of autopsy. Antidepressants were not detected in any of the other youth suicides. CONCLUSIONS:: The detection of antidepressants at autopsy was quite rare in youth suicides in New York City from 1999 to 2002.

Language: en