SSRIs increase gastric bleed risk
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase
risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, researchers say.
Researchers from Ottawa, Canada, monitored the number
of upper GI bleeds that occured in 317,824 older patients. They found
that the higher the level of serotonin inhibition, the higher the risk
of GI bleeding. After controlling for age, the risk of bleeding increased
by 10.7 per cent with increasing level of inhibition of serotonin reuptake
and 9.8 per cent after controlling for previous GI bleeds. Differences
were greatest in people aged over 80 years.
The researchers comment that the increased bleeding
rates are clinically important for people aged over 80 years and for people
with previous upper GI bleeding. For these groups, the extent that an
antidepressant inhibits serotonin reuptake should be a consideration when
selecting a drug, but for other patients such precautions are probably
unneccessary, they say (BMJ 2001; 323:655).
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