Research published in the journal BMC Medicine found nortriptyline was dramatically more likely to be linked to the problem than escitalopram.
Dr Nader Perroud from Kings College London said: 'Suicidal thoughts and behaviours during antidepressant treatment have prompted warnings by regulatory bodies.
'The aim of our study was to investigate the emergence and worsening of suicidal thoughts during treatment with two different types of antidepressant.'
Both escitalopram and nortriptyline have their effect through the mood modulating neurotransmitter systems.
The former is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), preventing serotonin from re-entering the cell and thereby prolonging its effect on nerve synapses. The latter is a tricyclic antidepressant that inhibits the reuptake of noradrenaline, and to a lesser extent, that of serotonin.
The new research was carried out on 811 individuals with moderate to severe unipolar depression.
While researchers found there was an overall reduction of suicidal thoughts, men who took nortriptyline were found to have a 9.8-fold increase in emerging suicidal thoughts and a 2.4-fold increase in worsening suicidal thoughts compared to those who took escitalopram.
Dr Perroud concludes: 'Our findings that treatment-emerging and worsening suicidal thoughts may also be associated with psychomotor activation triggered by antidepressants needs to be investigated in future studies.
'The study also refutes the idea that newer antidepressants such as the SSRIs are worse than older medications in terms of increasing suicidal thoughts.'
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