A new study suggests that menopausal women, who are prescribed with a type of antidepressant, may face the risk of bone fractures. The class of antidepressant involved is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), and sample drugs include Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft and Paxil.
For the study, the researchers collated data from the PharMetrics Claims Database, which contains a wide range of drug therapy information of about 61 million patients at the national level. The researchers specifically looked at the data of 137,031 patients aged 40-64, who were prescribed to take SSRIs from 1998-2010. The data of this group were compared to a second cohort group that is made up of 236,294 patients aged 40-64, who started taking H2 antagonists (H2As) or proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) between the exact same period. Participants from both groups were not diagnosed with any mental health conditions.
The findings of the study published in the journal Injury Prevention reveal that the rate of risk fracture among the study participants across the period of one, two and five years of drug initiation were 76 percent, 73 percent and 67 percent respectively.
"SSRIs appear to increase fracture risk among middle-aged women without psychiatric disorders, an effect sustained over time, suggesting that shorter duration of treatment may decrease this," says Professor Matthew Miller, study lead author and part of the British Medical Journal group. "Future efforts should examine whether this association pertains at lower doses."
The researchers emphasized that their research was conducted using only statistical data as a research tool therefore, other factors such as cause and effect links cannot be determined in this study. Researches from the past saying that antidepressants may result in thinner and more fragile bones, however, were noted.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is an antidepressant, which is also prescribed for other medical conditions associated with menopause such as hot flashes, irritable bowel syndrome and night sweats. Because hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) was said to cause heart problems, SSRIs were lately approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat vasomotor menopausal symptoms. No previous studies exist discussing the effects of SSRI to risk fracture among perimenopausal women and women without mental disorders at large.
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