"Black box" labels ordered by the US Food and Drug Administration that warn of a greater risk of suicide from certain types of antidepressants may have had an effect opposite to that intended, says new research. Comparing numbers of prescriptions of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and reported suicides in the United States and the Netherlands, the researchers found that the rate of suicides among children and adolescents rose as numbers of prescriptions of SSRIs fell in 2003-4.

On May 2, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered that all antidepressant medications carry an expanded black-box warning incorporating information about an increased risk of suicidal symptoms in young adults 18 to 24 years of age. Since October 2004, antidepressants have been required to have a black-box warning indicating that they are associated with an increased risk of suicidal thinking, feeling, and behavior in children and adolescents.