Antidepressants Raise Stroke Risk

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Antidepressants Raise Stroke Risk

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 7:42 AM

By Sylvia Booth Hubbard

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/headline_health/antidepressants_stroke_ri/2009/12/1\

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Post-menopausal women who take antidepressants raise their risk of suffering

a stroke. A study of more than 136,000 American women found that those who

took antidepressants were 45 percent more likely to have a stroke. The

results were similar for those women taking selective serotonin uptake

inhibitors (SSRIs, which include Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft) and women who

took tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs, which include Elavil and Sinequan).

In addition, the overall death rate from any cause was 32 percent higher in

women who took antidepressants than in non-users.

The study, which was published in the " Archives of Internal Medicine, "

examined data from 136,293 women aged 50 to 79. None were taking

antidepressants at the beginning of the study, but 5,496 women were taking

antidepressants at their first follow-up visit. The women were followed for

six years and the researchers compared the incidence of fatal or nonfatal

stroke, fatal or nonfatal heart attack, and death from all causes between

the two groups.

While the researchers found no difference in the number of heart attacks,

they found a significant difference in the risk of stroke: women who used

antidepressants were 45 percent more likely to have strokes.

Senior author Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., and professor at Albert

Einstein School of Medicine, cautioned that the overall risk of stroke-while

significant-is relatively small: a .043 risk annually versus a 0.3 annual

risk. And while there was no significant difference in the number of strokes

caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or tricyclic

antidepressants, the SSRIs appeared to cause more hemorrhagic strokes

(caused by bleeding in the brain).

Concerned women need to discuss their options with their doctors Dr.

Wassertheil-Smoller said in a statement: " You have to weigh the benefits

that you get from these antidepressants against the small increase in risk

that we found in this study. "