> The paper does not draw a causation, nor does the article.
It does draw a conclusion:
> Indeed, there appears to be a slight elevated risk
> of suicide in people taking some antidepressants,
> especially young people. But the effect is tiny.
> And some people do think antidepressants relieve
> suffering. If depression caused suicide, treating
> depression should reduce suicide rates, but of
> course it hasn’t. This could be due to the
> ineffectiveness of treatment, however.
If depression caused suicide, treating depressing should reduce suicide rates ... BUT ... that assumes we identify and 'rectify' all depression, and that the only cause of suicide is depression, and that the only metric of success for treatment of depression is a reduction in suicide (across the board) ... and if you adopt those three positions then the numbers start to make sense.
It does draw a conclusion:
If depression caused suicide, treating depressing should reduce suicide rates ... BUT ... that assumes we identify and 'rectify' all depression, and that the only cause of suicide is depression, and that the only metric of success for treatment of depression is a reduction in suicide (across the board) ... and if you adopt those three positions then the numbers start to make sense.'But of course' this isn't the whole story.