Research into suicide needed

One reader tells it like it is in the Belfast Telegraph

The Belfast Telegraph has, in recent times, covered the tragic and distressing subject of suicide and examined the reasons which may lie behind people's decision to end their lives.

It is important also to acknowledge the fact that anti-depressants can lead to suicide.

The Seroxat scandal should be a warning to people and doctors about the very real dangers of these drugs, as well as the increased anxiety, agitation, emotional instability, aggression and other behavioural abnormalities which may result from such prescription drugs.

Research in Northern Ireland must urgently investigate how many people were on anti-depressants at the time of their suicide.

Depression and suicide have social environmental causes which require solutions in the form of greater social support, rather than chemical approaches which are often biased in favour of marketing, profit making and skewed clinical trial results.

Sean Fleming, Belfast