Psychiatrists reply to ‘speculation’ on risks

The training body for psychiatrists in this country has said that there is ‘no evidence’ of a link existing between antidepressant use and homicide, and that research has failed to establish a causal link between the use of these medications and suicide. In a detailed three-page document released recently, the College of Psychiatry of Ireland said recent discussions surround-ing these risks had been ‘speculative’ and failed to recognise that untreated depression can have a fatal outcome. {openx:269} It was also concerned that a mooted link between antidepressants and violence, which it stressed did not have a basis in scientific evidence,…