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The downsides of antidepressants

Ray Moynihan
Med J Aust 2011; 195 (8): . || doi: 10.5694/mja11.11183
Published online: 17 October 2011

Health reporter Ray Moynihan explores disturbing new data about the ever-popular pills

After analysing antidepressant use among older people in Britain for more than a decade, a team of researchers has come up with some alarming new findings. Released recently, their study barely raised a murmur in Australia, but its implications are potentially enormous.1 If the new data are to be believed, for older people, the most commonly prescribed drugs for depression may be associated with an increased risk of serious health problems and death compared with less common antidepressants or none at all.


  • Byron Bay, NSW.



Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Coupland C, Dhiman P, Morriss R, et al. Antidepressant use and risk of adverse outcomes in older people: population based cohort study. BMJ 2011; 343: d4551. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d4551.
  • 2. Coupland CAC, Dhiman P, Barton G, et al. A study of the safety and harms of antidepressant drugs for older people: a cohort study using a large primary care database. Health Technol Assess 2011; 15 (28). http://www.hta.ac.uk/fullmono/mon1528.pdf (accessed Sep 2011).

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