Antidepressants linked to bleeding

Some popular antidepressant drugs can cause internal bleeding similar to that triggered by aspirin and related painkillers, say researchers.

A review of the medical records of 549 patients admitted to hospitals for acute gastrointestinal bleeding found that ongoing use of Prozac and other selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, caused a risk of bleeding similar to that caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen.

"Physicians must closely monitor for this serious adverse event, especially in patients who are taking both SSRIs and NSAIDs," said Michael Jones, chief author of the report from the Northwestern University Medical School in Illinois.

The study was released in Chicago during a meeting of gastrointestinal experts. It was sponsored by TAP Pharmaceuticals, which makes Prevacid, a heartburn drug.

Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac, said bleeding was already listed as a potential side-effect of the drug and users were cautioned about it.

Gastrointestinal bleeding from NSAIDs has been blamed for 16,000 deaths a year in the United States, and that problem helped spur the development of Cox-2 drugs. But the Cox-2 drugs were found to raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

- REUTERS