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Antidepressant prescribing prior to suicide: role of doctors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Harm Boer ,
Nick Booth ,
David Russell ,
Roy Powell  and
Martin Briscoe
Harm Boer
Affiliation:
Reaside Clinic, Birmingham B45 9BE
David Russell
Affiliation:
Mount Pleasant Health Centre, Exeter EX4 7BW
Roy Powell
Affiliation:
Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, Exeter EX2 5DW
Martin Briscoe*
Affiliation:
Wonford House Hospital, Exeter EX2 5AF
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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The pharmacological treatment of depression and the time elapsed since last seen by a doctor were investigated among 507 adults who subsequently killed themselves. The proportion of people consulting a general practitioner or psychiatrist prior to suicide was lower than reported by the British government in the Health of the Nation document. General practitioners prescribed relatively low doses of antidepressants. Nineteen out of the 115 people receiving antidepressants used the drugs to kill themselves. Our findings emphasise the importance of prescribing adequate doses of antidepressants and underline the need for safer prescribing.

Information

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , May 1996 , pp. 282 - 284
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996

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