Antidepressants Linked to Bone Loss

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Based on the results of this study alone, it's impossible to know why the difference between the two groups exists, Diem said.

"We found that use of the SSRIs was associated with increased rates of bone loss in this group of older women, but this research cannot definitively determine whether the drugs themselves are responsible for the increased rates of bone loss or whether other differences between SSRI users and those who don't use SSRIs are responsible," Diem said. "For instance, depression itself has been linked to increased rates of bone loss, and people on SSRIs are more likely to have been depressed."

"This work needs to be confirmed in other populations, and the real question is whether the drugs have an effect on rates of fracture, and that we could not address," Diem continued.

A study by Canadian researchers published in January, also in Archives of Internal Medicine, however, did indicate a risk of fracture among people in their 50s taking SSRIs.

The second study published in the new issue of Archives involved 5,995 men aged 65 and older, and found that men using SSRIs also had lower bone mineral density at the hip and at the base of the spine.

Total hip bone mineral density was 3.9 percent lower among SSRI users than among men not using any antidepressants. Spine bone mineral density was 5.9 percent lower among SSRI users compared with non-users.

As in the study involving women, there was no significant difference in bone mineral density between men taking tricyclic antidepressants and those not taking any antidepressants. Men taking the antidepressant trazodone had the same bone mineral density as those taking no antidepressants.

More information

For more information on bone loss, visit the National Osteoporosis Foundation.