Epilepsy drugs bringing potentially suicidal patients closer to the brink – this was the main topic of discussion at this year’s meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, the largest reunion of its kind in the country. This issue has lately become the subject of heated debate, ever since the Food and Drug Administration sounded the suicidal risk alert and came up with data proving that anticonvulsant drugs (AEDs) are dangerous.

The medical specialists (epileptologists, epidemiologists and psychiatrists) participating at the meeting  concluded that the FDA’s report was flawed and it constitutes in itself a danger, as it confuses doctors and scares patients. If people suffering from epilepsy stop taking the appropriate drugs, the risk of them having an accident or even dying is much more dramatic and tangible than the FDA’s suicide warnings.

According to Science Daily, the doctors at the AES meeting presented scientific data of their own showing that epilepsy drugs have a very low probability of actually causing suicidal thoughts, and that such a thing should by no means be a reason for not treating epileptic patients. They also expressed their concern about the FDA’s methods and analysis. The AES specialists believe that the agency failed to consider a large portion of significant data and that their suicidality measurements are consequently inaccurate.

This isn’t the first time that warnings made by the Food and Drug Administration have come under fire. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are antidepressant drugs which the agency also considered dangerous. As a result of the warning, SSRI use decreased, but this led to a larger number of suicides, contradicting the FDA’s analysis and predictions.