Antidepressant-induced suicide,violence and mania: Risks for military personnel

Abstract

The newer antidepressants frequently cause suicide, violence and manic-like symptoms of activation or over-stimulation, presenting serious hazards to active duty soldiers who carry weapons under stressful conditions. These antidepressant-induced symptoms of activation can mimic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are likely to worsen this common disorder in soldiers, increasing the hazard when they are prescribed to military personnel. Antidepressants should not be prescribed to soldiers during or after deployment. Recently concern has been expressed about the increased prescription of psychiatric medications, especially antidepressants, to military personnel [46, 57]. In presentations at military conferences on combat stress [8, 10] and in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee [9], I have pointed to a probable causal relationship between increasing rates of antidepressant prescription and increasing rates of suicide in the military. This paper reviews and evaluates the relevant scientific data.