This is a very tricky subject where language fails us a bit - what exactly is a 'suicidal thought,' or 'suicidal ideation' as clinicians put it?
You can be depressed and think that you want to die, or that everyone else would be better off if you were dead, or that being dead would be preferable to stewing misery...but feel too apathetic to do anything about it. With or without drugs, you can be in a more active mode where you feel like doing something about your problems, but still feel miserable or be acutely conscious of the pit of misery that you just left, eg if you're bipolar and having a manic episode. So the drug or mood swing might correlate with the impetus to commit suicide, eg getting up and going somewhere to do so or making use of tools to that end. But is the 'suicidal thought' the desire to stop living, or the practical action upon that desire? As someone with some first-hand experience in this area, focusing on the latter seems like blaming the period for the ending of a sentence, while avoiding engagement with the semantic content thereof.
I'm not saying that drugs or other factors can't induce the idea by any means, but most discussions of this issue seem to involve a heft does of post hoc ergo propter hoc, ie the correlation = causation fallacy.
Suicidal ideation covers active thoughts ("this is the method I will use; this is my plan; here is a note") and passive thoughts ("I wish I wasn't here anymore"; "they'd be better off without me" etc).
Depression covers a broad range of behaviours and severities.
But to say "anti depressants can cause odd thinking in some people during the first few weeks of use, and people starting anti depressants should be closely monitored" is not controversial. You mention bipolar - it is important to be very careful with SSRIs and people with (possibly undiagnosed) bipolar.
You can be depressed and think that you want to die, or that everyone else would be better off if you were dead, or that being dead would be preferable to stewing misery...but feel too apathetic to do anything about it. With or without drugs, you can be in a more active mode where you feel like doing something about your problems, but still feel miserable or be acutely conscious of the pit of misery that you just left, eg if you're bipolar and having a manic episode. So the drug or mood swing might correlate with the impetus to commit suicide, eg getting up and going somewhere to do so or making use of tools to that end. But is the 'suicidal thought' the desire to stop living, or the practical action upon that desire? As someone with some first-hand experience in this area, focusing on the latter seems like blaming the period for the ending of a sentence, while avoiding engagement with the semantic content thereof.
I'm not saying that drugs or other factors can't induce the idea by any means, but most discussions of this issue seem to involve a heft does of post hoc ergo propter hoc, ie the correlation = causation fallacy.