TY - JOUR PY - 2013// TI - Treatment-resistant depression and risk of suicide JO - Suicide and life-threatening behavior A1 - Pfeiffer, Paul N. A1 - Kim, Hyungjin M. A1 - Ganoczy, Dara A1 - Zivin, Kara A1 - Valenstein, Marcia SP - 356 EP - 365 VL - 43 IS - 4 N2 - We evaluated whether treatment-resistant depression (TRD) as measured by the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) staging method was associated with suicide in a large U.S. health system. Data from the Veterans Health Administration and the National Death Index were used to conduct a case-control study of patients newly diagnosed with depression who received antidepressant treatment between 2003 and 2006. Suicide cases (N = 499) were matched with nonsuicide controls (N = 1994). Conditional logistic regression was used to assess whether MGH stage at time of suicide (or matched date) was associated with case status, adjusting for patient demographic characteristics, comorbidity, and service use. Results indicated 11.6% of suicide cases had MGH stage 3 or greater (indicating at least two antidepressant trials) compared to 6.4% of controls (p < .001). In adjusted analyses, suicide was not significantly more likely among patients with stage 3 or greater (OR 1.52; 95% CI: 0.98, 2.37) or stages 1.5-2.5 (OR 1.19; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.55) compared to patients with stage 1 or less (<10 weeks of antidepressant medication). Staging TRD using MGH criteria is unlikely to substantially improve suicide risk assessment of depressed patients beyond existing measures contained in health system records.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0363-0234 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12022 ID - ref1 ER -