Here’s a few questions the FDA Strattera suicide warning brought up.
One thing I’ve had more than one client tell me that when they started taking ADD medication, it slowed down their brains long enough to really feel some emotions that they’ve haven’t felt before (or very deeply) since their turbo charged ADHD brains often raced too fast to stop long enough to really feel some deep emotions. So for some people, when they do take ADD medications, many emotions and feeling from their past that they haven’t processed before may come up, good and bad, and they may feel them fairly strongly. I’m wondering if this may be related to the Strattera suicide attempts?
Does anyone know of any research on this?
I do remember one psychiatrist telling me at an ADD conference that people who took SSRI antidepressants had a increased risk of suicide in the first month of taking them because it gave them enough energy to try to actually commit suicide instead of just talking about it. So he said that it was really important that they be monitored in the first month or so of treatment. Another nurse I know that’s familiar with ADD and mental health issues mentioned that when you did treat people for depression, it did increase the rate of suicide attempts but said that if you didn’t attempt to treat it, you’d probably have more actual suicides. I wonder if any of the children and adolescents in the Strattera studies who did have suicidal thoughts were already depressed before taking Strattera?
As an Adult ADHD coach, I don’t treat depression, I get my clients to see therapists and physicians for ADD comorbid conditions such as depression or anxiety. I may help my ADHD clients who also have depression work on things like developing and modifying an exercise regime that will work for them (exercise is great for ADD+ depression +anxiety since it boosts dopamine, seretonin and endorphine), doing gratitude exercises to focus on what they’re grateful for in their lives etc.).
I do wonder what the rate is of attempted and actual suicides when people are treated with
1. Therapy.
2. Medications both SSRI’s and Tricyclic Antidepressants)
3. Both Medication and therapy.
4. No treatment. This last one is probably impossible since it’d be unethical and immoral not to treat someone with depression.
Anyone know of any good comparative studies on this?
I don’t know of any reasearch on the topic. But I do know that when I first began medical treatment for ADD, my mind began to see many negative patterns and behaviors in both myself and in family members I had not recognized before. Many unconnected, disconnected, and forgotten memories suddenly became connected and I vividly saw patterns I had previous been oblivious to. I went through some times of intense rage, self-loathing, and grief which were precipitated by my sudden ability to see clearly in a linear fashion.
I was shocked by my reactions, having been told by my doctor that the medication was like a “magic pill” that would fix everything. He never did understand what was going on and I switched therapists.
I think it’s extremely important that the doctors and therapists treating adult ADHD patients have thorough knowledge and experience of treating adult ADHD to better be able to help their patients get through this time of self-discovery and new-found vision.
After the initial “honeymoon” phase of diagnosis and treatment, I went through an intense season of grief. A doctor with experience treating adult ADHD would have know of this possibility and been prepared to help me through it.
Choosing the right team of doctors, therapists, and coaches is crucial to successful treatment in my opinion.
I was put on strattera as a teen, and was taken off of it after a year. I had met other kids who have been on it, and than taken off of it. I do not think that it is just when you are takening this drug that this suicidal tendency is strong, I think that there are the after effects that are involved. The kids in my neghborhood (back in 2003) that had been taken it, there are only two of us living. The rest, who had been taken off of it, had killed themselves with in three years of this drug.
I think that people need to research not only what it does while on this pill, but after you are taken off of it. Out of a group of six, and only two survivors because we got to the hospital in time, that is very depressining to think that any child on this drug, or who had been on it, have been sucidal.
Other teens I have met in these later years who are “survivors” of the drug, all talk about their sucide attempts, and how they were taken off the drug to be switched to an anti-depressant. They are now off any drugs, like I am, because of the fact that those drugs that were said to help us did the opposite and hurt us.
It wasn’t like one of those thought pattern things where my mind slowed down (re: concerta that happened with) and then I began to feel bad and think about my life and feel like a failure and contemplate suicide. It was like out of the blue the idea started occurring to me more and more frequently even having suicide dreams for the first time after being stable for years. Glad my Pdoc caught it before it was too late. I was too depressed to even know what was going on or think to call him. I am usually a good advocate for myself.