September 16, 2015

Young antidepressant users much more likely to commit crimes

Daily Mail, UK - An Oxford University study found that men – and women – in their late teens and early 20s – were almost 50 per cent more likely to be convicted of offenses from assault to murder when taking SSRI drugs.

This family of anti-depressants includes Prozac, as well as Seroxat, Lustral, Cipralex and Cipramil, the most commonly prescribed of the pills.

One in eight Britons takes SSRIs each year – and the number of prescription has doubled in the last decade.

Meanwhile in the US around 11 per cent of people aged 12 and over take antidepressants, including SSRIs, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The researchers said the risk in 15 to 24 year olds is ‘not insignificant’ and that the public health implications ‘require careful consideration’.

... Professor Fazel, who researches the links between mental illness and violent crime, said: ‘People who were aged between 15 and 24 had a 43 per cent higher risk of committing a violent crime when medicating compared to when not medicating. Among the other age groups we didn’t see any associations that were significant at all.’

The professor isn’t sure what’s behind the link but one possibility is that the drugs act differently on developing brains.

SSRIs are already associated with a higher risk of suicide attempts in the young.

1 comment:

Dave Richardson said...

There is a real question here about the direction of causation here: one could equally well argue that those likely to commit crimes are also more likely to get scrips for antidepressants. Thus this is like the countless studies that prove that people healthy enough to exercise live longer than those who aren't.