**Does Psychiatric Treatment Prevent Suicide?

Does psychiatric treatment prevent suicide: by Dinah Miller M.D.Clinical Psychiatry News, November 2015.

The title of this article presents an interesting question.  More than ever Americans take antidepressants.  However more than ever, Americans commit suicide.  The medications are effective in treating depression, and with depression suicidal thoughts.  However, the statistics do not match for some reason.  40,000 Americans died of suicide in 2013.  At the same time 11 percent of Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressant medication.  It would seem these two stats are at odds with each other.  The author points out it is hard to have a closed sample where study of why this would be can take place.  However, studies are beginning to show that medications with talk therapy are an effective means of preventing suicide and treating depression.  [personal thoughts on the topic and I am not a doctor; sometimes antidepressants work on increasing energy, which is also a symptom of depression, before dealing with the suicidal ideation.  The low energy often keeps patients from acting on suicidal thoughts.  However with increased energy, and if these suicidal thoughts aren’t adequately dealt with in therapy or treatment, there is a period where patients are at risk.]  The conclusion is that more study needs to be done to figure out why these statistics are not congruent. However combining therapy with medications greatly reduces the risk of suicide.