Antidepressants, medications used to treat depression, anxiety and other health conditions, can cause a wide range of physiological side effects depending on which one you take, according to a new study.
In the study, published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet, researchers analyzed more than 58,000 participants to compare 30 antidepressants with a placebo for an average of eight weeks, finding “clinically significant” differences between the drugs’ effect on blood flow and metabolism.
The differences noted in the study include weight change, heart rate, blood pressure and total cholesterol.
For weight change, researchers found some antidepressants, including maprotiline and amitriptyline, were associated with weight gain in almost half of participants — about a 4-pound average increase with maprotiline, for example. However, other drugs, such as agomelatine, were associated with weight loss in 55% of patients who lost approximately 5.5 pounds on average.
For heart rate, some drugs caused increases — like a 14 beats-per-minute increase on average for nortriptyline — while others caused decreases, such as an average decrease of 8 beats-per-minute for fluvoxamine.
Kidney and liver function, electrolyte levels and heart rhythm were not majorly effected by most antidepressants, according to the study.
These findings should not deter people from taking antidepressants, which remain effective treatments, the study’s authors write, but instead should highlight the need for better tailoring of treatments to best fit a patient’s health and preferences.
“We do know that these medications are life-saving and life-changing, but they can have variation from person to person depending on a person’s metabolism, their age (and) what other medications they’re on,” psychiatrist Dr. Sue Varma, who was not involved in the study, said on “CBS Mornings Plus” Wednesday.
Untreated depression also can cause the side effects explored in the study, including weight gain or loss, Varma added, making it important to “weigh the risks and the benefits” of medications.
She suggests doctors make it clear to patients that antidepressants can potentially exacerbate underlying conditions like elevated cholesterol or diabetes, make a plan to monitor side effects carefully and provide an array of lifestyle interventions.
“Let’s not cause panic, but these medications do have really important side effects,” Varma said.
