In a study of 238,963 participants, all diagnosed with depression between 2000 and 2011, University of Nottingham researchers looked for the association between various antidepressants and cardiovascular outcomes. They monitored the participants, noting any occurrence of heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attacks, or arrhythmia, and the study was recently published in the journal BMJ.
In addition to examining patients taking SSRIs, they also looked at patients taking tricyclic drugs and others. They also considered the following factors:
- Dosage
- Duration of use
- Age
- Sex
- Smoking
- Alcohol consumption
- Co-morbidities
- Use of other drugs
Another drug called citalopram, the most commonly prescribed antidepressant drug, showed no increased risk of heart disease even at the highest doses. However, the scientists still unsure if high doses of citalopram could potentially lead to increased risk for heart disease because only 18 percent of the study participants with citalopram prescriptions were for high doses, so they still recommend for doctors not to prescribe high doses of citalopram.
Source: University of Nottingham