17 Jul Antidepressants Plus NSAIDS May Increase Risk of Bleeding in Brain

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Byung-Joo Park, MD, MPH, PhD
Professor
Department of Preventive Medicine
Seoul National University College of Medicine

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Antidepressants and NSAIDs are each thought to increase the risk of abnormal bleeding.  However, previous studies found neither antidepressants nor NSAIDs alone to be associated with an increased risk of intracranial haemorrhage.  Our research found that combined use of NSADIs in antidepressant users showed the increased relative risk of intracranial haemorrhage risk within the initial 30-days of combined use.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response:   For the clinicians, special attention should be paid for the antidepressant users when they additionally start the NSAIDs prescription.  Monitoring bleeding risk is particularly needed at the initial combined use of both medicines.  For the patients who have been taking antidepressants, in case they need additional NSAIDs, they should tell doctors considering the possibility of drug-drug interaction which can induce intracranial haemorrhage.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Present study was focused on the antidepressants users, and the differential risk according to the type of antidepressants. Future research would be needed whether the type of NSAIDs such as Cox2 selective vs. non-selective affects the risk associated with combined use of antidepressant. Considering the frequent OTC use of NSAIDs, record linkage study using health insurance database with pharmacy database would produce better results.

Citation:

Byung-Joo Park, MD, MPH, PhD (2015). Antidepressants Plus NSAIDS May Increase Risk of Bleeding in Brain 

Last Updated on July 17, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD