The U. S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008 stated that epilepsy medications should bear a warning label about an increased risk of suicidal behaviours. It was stated after seeing about 199 studies which stated that twice the risk of suicidal behaviour was shown by patients who were taking the drugs.

But the FDA's findings are contradicted by about five million patients. It is stated that the medicine was not responsible for the suicides; rather the conditions for which drugs were prescribed were responsible for the suicides.

The health records of primary care patients in England were analyzed by researchers in Spain and the United States. It was observed that there was no risk of suicide-related events among patients who had epilepsy and were using an antiepileptic drug.

Study author Dr. Alejandro Arana, an epidemiologist and managing partner at Risk MR Pharmacovigilance Services, in Zaragoza, Spain, said, "In our opinion, in the long term, it is not the drugs themselves that raise the risk of suicide, but the underlying disease for which these drugs are prescribed."