Depression and antidepressant medications: both are linked to increased fracture risk

Excerpt

I thank Dr. Donzelli and his colleagues for their interest in our recent meta-analysis research. I agree that antidepressant use contributes to fracture risk and is associated with many other adverse effects. The scope of our meta-analysis was to investigate the association between depression, fracture risk, and bone loss [1]. Within that scope, we conducted a compressive meta-analysis and concluded that depression is associated with a significantly increased risk in fracture and bone loss. We also conducted subgroup analyses, and after controlling for antidepressant use found that the association between depression and fracture is significant. However, we did not “dismiss the possible additional contribution of antidepressant to fractures,” or underestimate “antidepressants’ role in risk of fractures.” In fact, our prior meta-analyses, which focused on antidepressant use, demonstrated that either SSRIs [2] or TCA antidepressant [3] use is significantly associated with increased fracture risk. …