Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/us-antidepressants-idUSBRE89G1PB20121017
Antidepressants linked to risk of brain bleeds
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK | Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:24pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People using a common class of antidepressants may have slightly increased odds of suffering bleeding in the brain - though the risk is still very small, researchers reported Wednesday.
The antidepressants are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and include widely used drugs like fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and paroxetine (Paxil).
SSRIs have been linked to a risk of stomach bleeding. But studies have come to conflicting findings on whether SSRI users have any higher risk of hemorrhagic strokes, which happen when there is bleeding in or around the brain.
So for the new study, researchers pooled the findings from 16 past studies involving more than 500,000 people who were on SSRIs or not.
Overall, antidepressant users were about 40 to 50 percent more likely to suffer bleeding in or around the brain, the researchers report in the journal Neurology.
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