Senate Memorial 9, sponsored by State Sen. Joe Carraro (R-Albuquerque), passed the Senate on Thursday.

The memorial creates a task force to study the correlation between antidepressant use and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

The task force would subsequently determine the level of expertise necessary to prescribe antidepressant pharmaceuticals. The task force would also recommend solutions should a link be determined. The FDA, in 2004, issued a labeling requirement for “antidepressant drugs” that not only included the pharmacological class of serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) but also the other pharmaceuticals generally classified as antidepressants. The black box warning is part of the labeling requirements that the dispensers of antidepressants are required to include when dispensing an antidepressant to a patient. The literature on the link between antidepressant use in the young n children and adolescents up to age 25 — and suicides and or suicidal behavior is not consistent in supporting whether or not there is a link.