[resonance]

In a study of more than 100,000 patients treated for depression, suicide attempts declined during the first month of treatment--whether that treatment consisted of medication, psychotherapy, or both. The findings, published by Group Health researchers in the July American Journal of Psychiatry, show a similar pattern for populations of adolescents and young adults (up to age 24) as for older adults.

Suicide attempts, overall, are not raised by medication, either for adults or adolescents/young adults. Nonetheless, some people do become suicidal despite never having been so before. The prof suggests that this is due to subgroups (duh, some of the 30-40% of bipolar patients who get hypo/manic, but I wonder if there's anyone else - maybe we'll find out eventually).

I do wonder, though, if some of the improvement isn't regression to the mean - people frequently don't start treatment until they're quite bad off, and mood episodes tend to pass with time.