Modeling of the Temporal Patterns of Fluoxetine Prescriptions and Suicide Rates in the United States

Michael S Milane, Marc A Suchard, Ma-Li Wong and Julio Licinio

PLOS Medicine, 2006, vol. 3, issue 6, 1-

Abstract: Background: To study the potential association of antidepressant use and suicide at a population level, we analyzed the associations between suicide rates and dispensing of the prototypic SSRI antidepressant fluoxetine in the United States during the period 1960–2002. Methods and Findings: Sources of data included Centers of Disease Control and US Census Bureau age-adjusted suicide rates since 1960 and numbers of fluoxetine sales in the US, since its introduction in 1988. We conducted statistical analysis of age-adjusted population data and prescription numbers. Suicide rates fluctuated between 12.2 and 13.7 per 100,000 for the entire population from the early 1960s until 1988. Since then, suicide rates have gradually declined, with the lowest value of 10.4 per 100,000 in 2000. This steady decline is significantly associated with increased numbers of fluoxetine prescriptions dispensed from 2,469,000 in 1988 to 33,320,000 in 2002 ( rs = −0.92; p

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pmed00:0030190

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030190

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