Antidepressants and Surgical Bleeding

People who take medicines for depression may have an increased risk of bleeding with major surgery, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at medical records for about 500,000 Americans who had surgery in a 2-year period. People who took drugs known as SSRIs were 10% more likely to have excess bleeding after surgery than other patients. SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. These drugs are antidepressants. They include fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil) and many others. People who took SSRIs also had a higher risk of dying in the hospital or being admitted again in the next month. This study does not show that the drugs caused the problems. Researchers said that people taking drugs for depression might have a higher risk of problems with surgery for other reasons, too. The journal JAMA Internal Medicine published the study.