Epilepsy drugs scrutinized over provoking suicidal thoughts
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The Food and Drug Administration may soon order the makers of 11 epilepsy drugs to warn users about potential suicidal behavior, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. According to an alert published by the FDA in January, patients receiving anti-epileptic drugs, such as Tegretol, Neurontin and Lyrica, had about twice the risk of suicidal behavior and thoughts compared with patients taking a placebo. The alert states:
‘All patients with anti-epileptic drugs should be monitored for suicidality and other unusual changes in behavior. Symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, hostility, mania and hypomania may be precursors to emerging suicidality.’
The 11 medications that may be included in the mandate can be found here.
This development points out a couple of things. One, the FDA is plenty serious about warning consumers of the potential for psychiatric side effects from medications. Recently, the agency warned that the anti-smoking drug Chantix could cause suicidal thoughts. It should be no surprise that some drugs cause psychiatric symptoms as well as physical symptoms, such as an upset stomach or weight gain. The brain is just as sensitive to the effects of medication as other organs and tissues --perhaps more so.
As noted by In Vivo Blog: ‘Over the long term, manufacturers would be wise to take a cautious approach to psychiatric drug safety. FDA certainly is.’
Second, it will be interesting to see how the warnings affect other areas of medicine. Anti-epileptic medications are used to treat a host of conditions besides epilepsy. For example, in recent years psychiatrists have taken a big interest in using medications such as Tegretol and Depakote to treat serious mental health disorders. Some of the drugs appear to be effective, especially for treating bipolar disorder. But there are very few studies that show which anti-epileptic medications might be more effective for certain psychiatric conditions. I also wonder how the suicide risk (which was found mainly in people taking epilepsy drugs for epilepsy) will play out in a population of people with mental illness. Stayed tuned.
-- Shari Roan