Phenobarbital and Suicidality: A Case Report

Phenobarbitalis widely-used in primary care for the treatment of epilepsy, headache and insomniain India. There are certain scenarios in which its use must be monitored closely. We report a case wherein a lady was suffering from symptoms of mild depression following a stressor. After being prescribed Phenobarbitalfor headache and insomniaby a primary care physician, she developed suicidal ideationand made a suicide attempt. Clinicians should pick up possible appearance or worsening of depressive symptoms or emergence of suicidal ideationin patients on Phenobarbitaland consider changing the treatment.