Psychiatric Medication Quotes

“The issues of antidepressant-associated suicide has become front-page news, the result of an analysis suggesting a link between medication use and suicidal ideation among children, adolescents, a link between medication use and suicidal ideation among children, adolescents, and adults up to age 24 in short term (4 to 16 weeks), placebo-controlled trials of nine newer antidepressant drugs. The data from trials involving more than 4.4(K) patients suggested that the average risk of suicidal thinking or behavior (suicidality) during the first few months of treatment in those receiving antidepressants was 4 percent, twice the placebo risk of 2 percent. No suicides occured in these trials. The analysis also showed no increase in suicide risk among the 25 to 65 age group. Antidepressants reduced suicidality among those over age 65. Following public hearings on the subject, in October 2004, the FDA requested the addition of “black box” warnings—the most serious warning placed on the labeling of a prescription medication—to all antidepressant drugs, old and new.”
― Benjamin James Sadock, Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry

“He suffers from akathisia. Although he knows he wouldn't go through with it, he frequently finds himself consumed by thoughts of suicide. He explained that it essentially comes with it; it's that simple. He thought that being overwhelmed and stretched too thin rendered him ineffective for himself and others. He claims it is the source of his most profound suffering and anguish, no matter how it appears on the surface. He conquers akathisia. As a result, he claims victory at every moment of his waking life.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Porcelain Utopia