Increased risk of death in post-menopausal women taking antidepressants

Post-menopausal women taking antidepressants are at higher risk of suffering a stroke or of dying of any cause than are those who do not take such medications, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,

Since post-menopausal women make up the largest segment of patients in the United States on antidepressants, the resulting increases in strokes and deaths across the country could be significant. The findings emerged from the federally funded Women's Health Initiative, one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive studies of women's health. The study followed 136,293 post-menopausal women, age 50 to 79, for just under six years. During that time, 5,496 developed depression and were treated with antidepressant medication. During the span of follow-up, the women on antidepressants were 45% more likely than those not on such medication to have a stroke, and 32% more likely to die of any cause.

Bonnie - synthetic hormones, antidepressants...many classes of medications are not kind to post-menopausal women.