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A new research conducted at the Seoul National University College of Medicine is claiming that antidepressants may increase stroke risk. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine like naproxen and ibuprofen may cause intracranial hemorrhage when taken together with antidepressants.
The threat of suffering from intracranial hemorrhage is a lot higher when individuals who take antidepressants combine them with NSAIDs. Intracranial hemorrhage is the bleeding which happens around the brain inside the skull.
The scientists looked at data gathered from around four million people who started taking antidepressants from a period of time between the years 2009 to 2013. They observed that around 50 percent of the people under antidepressant medication were also prescribed NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen.
The researchers gathered data from records in hospitals where people were admitted with intracranial hemorrhage which happened within a period of 30 days since combining NSAIDs and antidepressants. They found that the individuals who consumed the pills together had a 60 percent increased risk of suffering from intracranial hemorrhage than the people who took only the antidepressants.
The risk of brain bleeding was 1.2 times bigger in women that consumed the medications together than those who took only one of the two. In contrast, the men who took both drugs together were noticed to have a 2.6 times bigger risk of suffering from intracranial hemorrhage. Numerous groups of antidepressants such as tricyclics, SNRIs and SSRIs apparently had the same effect on people, as claimed by the study.
It is important to know, however, that the study was conducted in concern to NSAIDs, which are commonly prescribed by doctors, and not with over the counter pills which could contain lower doses of the active ingredients in NSAIDs.
Byung-Joo Park, M.P.H., Ph. D., M.D., professor of preventive medicine in the Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea and the author of the study said about the effects of over the counter (OCT) pills that they could be analyzed in another study as there are a lot of possibilities. He added that they should consider all the cases. For instance, there might be a bigger risk as over the counter NSAIDs are commonly taken without any monitoring or professional advice. However, the risk could also be a lot smaller as people who take over the counter NSAIDs could be healthier that those who rely on prescriptions.
The study also claims that NSAIDs and antidepressants, when taken alone, inhibit the platelets and might cause a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding which are not connected to intracranial hemorrhage unless the two pills are combined with each other.
The study was released in the British Medical Journal.
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