Suicide in severe depression related to treatment: depressive characteristics and rate of antidepressant overdose.

The objective of the present study was to assess the association between depressive characteristics and completed suicide despite adequate antidepressant therapy in severe depression and to investigate the frequency of lethal antidepressant overdoses. A record evaluation of 98 suicide victims with a primary severe depression had been performed. These had been admitted to the Department of Psychiatry, Lund University Hospital between 1956 and 1969 and followed up to 1998. Psychomotor retardation was related to completed suicide after ECT. The estimated frequency of lethal intoxication with antidepressants was low: 3% of the suicides.