Risk of suicide attempt in asthmatic children and young adults prescribed leukotriene-modifying agents: a nested case-control study.

BACKGROUND

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued safety alerts about leukotriene receptor-modifying agents and suicidality/suicide, but because these were based on case reports, there is controversy about the association.

OBJECTIVE

We conducted a nested case-control study to determine the association between leukotriene-modifying agents (LTMAs) and attempted suicide among asthmatic children and young adults.

METHODS

Cases and control subjects were from a cohort of asthmatic patients aged 5 to 24 years who were new users of LTMAs or other asthma medications. Data were from an insurance claims database. Cases were defined as those with a suicide attempt (SA) occurring after exposure to asthma medication. Control subjects were persons at risk and were selected by using incidence density sampling in a 10:1 match. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine the association between LTMA exposure and the risk of attempted suicide adjusted for important covariates.

RESULTS

We identified 344 cases and 3438 matched control subjects. Cases were more likely than control subjects to have risk factors for suicide. We found that current use of any LTMA was not associated with increased risk of an SA; in fact, the direction of effect was the opposite (adjusted odd ratio, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.36-1.39).

CONCLUSION

In this analysis we found that use of LTMAs was not associated with an increased risk of SAs in children, adolescents, and young adults with asthma. Further research needs to be conducted to more fully understand the association between LTMAs and suicide, particularly in subpopulations.