Toxicology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Toxicology, including details on forensic toxicology, carcinogenicity, assays.

Antidepressants and youth suicide in New York City, 1999-2002.

Leon AC, Marzuk PM, Tardiff K, Bucciarelli A, Markham Piper T, Galea S

Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA. acleon@med.cornell.edu

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 bupropion 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.

Published 23 August 2006 in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 45(9): 1054-8.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Toxicology Research Today. All Rights Reserved.