Association between antidepressant prescribing and suicide in Australia, 1991-2000: trend analysis

This artilce from British Medical Journal (BMJ 2003;326:1008 10 May) looks at the association between antidepressants and suicide. The study concludes that:

"Changes in suicide rates and exposure to antidepressants in Australia for 1991-2000 are significantly associated. This effect is most apparent in older age groups, in which rates of suicide decreased substantially in association with exposure to antidepressants. The increase in antidepressant prescribing may be a proxy marker for improved overall management of depression. If so, increased prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in general practice may have produced a quantifiable benefit in population mental health."

Deliberate Self-harm Resources

The University of York's (UK) NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination has a number of publications about DHS.

Effective Health Care : Deliberate Self-harm
While this publication is a couple of years old (1998), and UK oriented, it has some excellent information on the background of DHS, statistics (1962-1996, UK), data on the effectiveness of various treatment options and an extensive bibliography.

The Centre's website has a couple of databases that provide access to their most recent publications, as well as projects underway in the area.

Pathways of Care for Young People who Present for Non-fatal Deliberate Self-harm
This report, produced by the Centre for Primary Health Care at the University of Queensland covers much of the same material from an Australian perspective.

Depression Resources
Real Men, Real Depression
The US National Institute of Mental Health has launched a program encouraging men to recognise depression and seek treatment for it. The site includes stories from a number of men who experienced depression, information about treatment options, symptoms etc. The "Getting Help" pages all refer to North American resources, so this should be noted if referring people to the site.

A useful Australian alternative is the BluePages site produced by the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. The Treatment and Help and Resources pages are a good compliment to the Real Men site.

UCLA School Mental Health Project
The Center for Mental Health in Schools site has a wealth of information about mental health within schools. The search page allows you to access groups of resources, both produced by the Center, and produced by other authors. There are excellent resources on topics such as depression, early childhood development, post traumatic stress and many others. Some of the material will have limited application outside of North America, but the majority will be of use world wide.

An excellent site. Thanks Sven!