@article{ref1,
title="Continued antidepressant treatment and suicide in patients with depressive disorder",
journal="Psychiatria Danubina",
year="2006",
author="Sondergard, Lars and Kvist, K. and Lopez, Ana Garcia and Andersen, Per Kragh and Kessing, Lars Vedel",
volume="18",
number="Suppl 1",
pages="80-80",
abstract="Background: As in many developed countries, the use of antidepressants in Denmark has been substantially increasing during recent years coinciding with a decreasing suicide rate. Methods: In a nationwide observational cohort study with linkage of registers of all prescribed antidepressants and recorded suicides in Denmark during a period from 1995 to 2000 we investigated the relation between continued treatment with antidepressants and suicide in a population of all patients discharged from hospital psychiatry with a diagnosis of depressive disorder. Results: Patients discharged from hospital psychiatry with a diagnosis of depressive disorder had a highly increased rate of suicide. Patients who continued treatment with antidepressants had a decreased rate of suicide compared with patients who purchased antidepressants once, only (rate ratio: 0.31, 95% confidence interval: 0.26 - 0.36). Further, the rate of suicide decreased consistently with the number of prescriptions. Limitations: The effect of time on the risk of suicide cannot be separated from the effect of treatment. Conclusions: On individualized data from a cohort with a known history of depressive disorder, continued antidepressant treatment was associated with reduced risk of suicide. The results are compatible with the suggestion that maintenance treatment with antidepressants is associated with a protective effect against suicide among patients with depressive disorder.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0353-5053",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}