A new study finds a significant association between SSRIs and violent crime convictions for young people aged 15–24 years, but not among those in older age groups. In addition, there were associations among those aged 15–24 years for violent crime arrests with preliminary investigations, non-violent crime convictions, non-violent crime arrests, non-fatal injuries from accidents, and emergency inpatient or outpatient treatment for alcohol intoxication or misuse. The findings, which need to be validated in other studies, were based on data from Swedish national registers on more than 856,000 individuals who were prescribed SSRIs, and subsequent violent crimes from 2006 through 2009. The researchers note that the results do not prove that taking SSRIs leads to an increase in violent crime among young people, as the study does not fully account for time-varying factors such as symptom severity or alcohol misuse. They also note that reverse causation might be a factor, as some people who committed a violent crime may have later taken SSRIs to help deal with the stress and anxiety of their arrest. The authors stressed that further research is needed to confirm their findings, but they said that "if confirmed, warnings about the increased risk of violent behavior among young people when being treated with SSRIs might be needed."