FRIDAY, March 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Oseltamivir does not appear to be associated with suicide risk in pediatric patients, according to a study published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Rachel Harrington, from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, and colleagues used a national administrative claims database and a case-crossover design to examine data from five influenza seasons (2009 to 2013) for 1- to 18-year-olds. The authors examined exposure to oseltamavir and assessed the correlation between oseltamavir use and suicide.
The researchers identified 21,407 suicide-related events during the study period, including 251 in oseltamivir-exposed children. There was no significant correlation with suicide for oseltamavir exposure (odds ratio, 0.64; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.39 to 1; P = 0.05) or for influenza diagnosis alone (odds ratio, 0.63; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.34 to 1.08; P = 0.1) in case-crossover analysis.
"Our findings suggest that oseltamivir does not increase risk of suicide in the pediatric population," the authors write.
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