Depressed? Don't read this article.

Women who take anti-depressants have a new reason to be depressed: They could have a stroke. In a study by Harvard researchers published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, women with a history of depression had a 29 percent greater risk of suffering a stroke than non-depressed women and those who take anti-depressants regularly were at a 39 percent increased risk. The study is important because it solidifies the long-held suspicion that depression and strokes could be related. 

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Harvard study particularly singled out women who take antidepressants which are classified as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI's such as Prozac or Zoloft, however all women who take anti-depressants had a degree of increased risk.
 
Kathryn Rexrode, the internist who was the study's senior author, explained that women should not stop taking their anti-depressants just yet. The elevations in risk were reported as, "moderate." and that there was no information to indicate that the medicines themselves were actually causing the increased risk.

"Although we found women who took antidepressants were at higher risk, I don't have anything to indicate it's because of the medications," she said.  Researchers suspect the use of the anti-depressants is the result of more severe depression and that the depression itself is somehow the culprit. Depression has been linked to increase stroke risk in previous studies, but not definitively, until now.

The most recent study followed 80,574 women aged 54-79. Researchers examined the participants' symptoms of depression, medication usage, and diagnoses from 2000 to 2006. Over the course of the study, there were 1,033 cases of stroke in the women.
 
Depression has already been linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, smoking, and physical inactivity, all themselves risk factors for stroke. Men might be lucky, however,. They are one-half as likely to suffer from depression as women, although the reasons are yet unknown. Doctors recommend that women make changes in their behavior including stopping smoking, improved diet, and exercise.

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