Why does suicide risk increase just after starting an antidepressant? There are many ways of treating depression, one of which is administering antidepressants. From this site, and several others, I read that risk of suicide increases after starting an antidepressant.


  A few people do become more agitated, depressed, and anxious shortly
  after an antidepressant is started or after the dose is increased.
  Some people, especially younger children and adolescents, become
  increasingly suicidal if these symptoms are not detected and rapidly
  treated. This finding was first reported with SSRIs, but the risk
  probably does not differ among classes of antidepressants.


My question is, simply, why is that? These antidepressants work long-term, but cause strong suicidal thoughts when taken initially. Does it have something to do with hormones?
This comes from talking to a psychiatrist about the issue:

One of the effects of depression is a loss of motivation.  In some suicidal individuals, this has the result that they want to die, but can't work up the motivation to do anything about it.  Once they start taking antidepressants, however, the lack of motivation goes away before the depression does, creating a short period of increased suicide risk.