Both attempted and completed suicides represent a major clinical
and public health challenge. The CDC has ranked suicide as the
11th leading cause of death among persons over age 10 (33,289
suicide deaths were reported in the United States in 2009. In a
recent article in Psychiatric Times Dr. Tondo and Baldessarini
noted that 90% of suicides occur in persons with a clinically
diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Patients with Major Depression
or Bipolar Depression have a 20-26 fold increase of mortality
rate over the general population. It was also stated in this
article the fact than fewer than 1/3 of persons who commit
suicide are receiving psychiatric treatment at the time of their
deaths. The authors further state that there is only
inconsistent evidence that antidepressants may help prevent
suicides. It was thought that the strong association between the
rapidly expanding use of antidepressants and the moderately
declining suicide rate in the US and in other countries were
indirect evidence of effectiveness