Association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and violent crime – could underlying psychopathology be the cause?

International audienceFuelling the discussion regarding the safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the present large Swedish nationwide cohort registry study (Lagerberg et al., 2020) tries to answer whether treatment with SSRIs is associated with increased risk of committing a violent crime. This is a substantial extension of a previous population-based study (Molero et al., 2015), which reported a positive association between SSRI use and violent crime only in individuals younger than 25. As the previous study was possibly underpowered to detect differences in other age groups, the present study has twice as long follow-up period, and almost three times higher number of events, with more than 32 thousand violent crimes committed by 20 thousand individuals