Hundreds Of Alerts In Deaths Linked To Antidepressants

Hundreds of alerts have been made to the UK's medicines regulator over deaths linked to antidepressants taken by Thomas Kingston in the weeks before he took his own life.

- REBECCA THOMAS

A coroner ruled on Tuesday that Mr Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, fatally shot himself after an adverse effect to the medications he had been prescribed, which included the common antidepressant citalopram.

The UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has received more than 216 alerts over fatalities linked to the antidepressant citalopram since 2014, according to data analysed by The Independent.

The data, called yellow card alerts, also shows 704 alerts over fatal adverse reactions linked to sertraline, another antidepressant taken by Mr Kingston, over the same period. During the inquest, Lady Kingston called for better warnings for patients over side effects linked to antidepressants which can include anxiety and suicidal thoughts.