Is Western Australian teenage suicide linked to over-prescription of neuroleptics?

Abstract

In Western Australia, during 1998, the prevalence rate of teenage suicide reached a new peak. Despite the natural geographic environment to rival any location in Australia, teenage suicide rates in Western Australia continue at high rates. A range of hypotheses has been generated to ‘explain’ this phenomenon including: high unemployment, poor housing, inequalities of service access, schooling problems, and the break-up of the family. Analysis of results of a new epidemiological study, however, indicates these high suicide rates correlate with unusually high prescription rates in Western Australia of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and in particular, Prozac (Baldwin and Browning 1999).