Conducted by Canadian researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the study was based on data from more than 1.2 million elderly patients who were monitored over the course of nearly 10 years. At the conclusion of the study period, researchers found that depressed patients who had been
prescribed drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) experienced an almost five times higher risk of attempting suicide than their peers. The study's authors suggested that increased restlessness, a known side effect of SSRI use, may be partially responsible for the link.