JAMA study shows some popular anticonvulsants used for epilepsy increase risk of suicide

Some anticonvulsants that are used to treat epilepsy and other conditions may increase the risk of suicide, attempted suicide or violent death, according to a new study published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). These include much used anticonvulsant drugs, such as Pfizer's Neurontin (gabapentin) and Novartis' Trileptal (oxcarbazepine).

Compared with Johnson & Johnson's Topamax (topiramate), the researchers, led by Elisabetta Patorno, a research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, found an increased risk for suicide in new users of Neurontin, GlaxoSmithKline's Lamictal (lamotrigine), Trileptal and Cephalon's Gabitril (tiagabine).

In 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration mandated warning labeling for anticonvulsant drug regarding the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The decision was based on a meta-analysis not sufficiently large to investigate individual drugs. The objective of the cohort study was to evaluate the risk of suicidal acts and combined suicidal acts or violent death associated with individual anticonvulsants.