Earlier this year, we reported on a decision taken by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) to put warnings on AEDs highlighting the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours associated with some of these medicines.
The decision was prompted by European and American research that concluded that suicidal thoughts or behaviours were twice as common in people on AED's as people taking placebos (fake pills).
However, new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found no increased risk of suicide associated with the drugs in people with epilepsy.
AEDs are sometimes used by doctors to treat bipolar disorder and depression and the researchers did find that patients with depression who were taking AEDs appeared to be at increased risk of suicide. It was also increased in people taking AEDs who did not suffer from epilepsy, depression or bipolar disorder for example people being prescribed the drugs for pain.
The study was carried out by researchers in America and Spain, looking into the medical records of over 5 million patients over 20 years who were all diagnosed with epilepsy, depression, or bipolar disorder.
The researchers stated that it was the underlying disorders which increased the suicide risk, not the drugs. "Our results, stratified according to the indication for drug use, suggest that illness carries more importance than the use of AEDs," state the authors.
The study's release comes soon after another study, published in the journal Neurology, found that a suicide risk exists with newer antiepileptic drugs, while older drugs appeared to have no increased risk of suicide.
Some experts are now calling for a removal of the warnings.