FORTUNE – New research links antidepressants to potential heart health risks.
Over 20 million American adults and 3.7 million kids ages 12 to 17 live with depression, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
And for about one in eight Americans, antidepressants are a vital tool to help manage the condition. But new research presented at the European Heart Rhythm Association’s 2025 Congress shows that this widely used medication is associated with a potential heart health risk.
Researchers examined data from all deaths Danish residents ages 18 to 90 during 2010. Of those deaths, researchers divided the group into those who used antidepressants and those who didn’t.
Of the 6,002 sudden cardiac deaths—an unexpected death caused by a heart-related issue—in the population, they found that the prevalence of sudden cardiac death was much higher in those who took antidepressants than those who didn’t, when adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidities.
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The exception was those ages 18 to 29, however, for whom the association between cardiac death and antidepressants was not statistically significant.
Within the group who took antidepressants, researchers further split them into two groups based on exposure time: people who took the medication for one to five years, and those who took it for six years or more.
The group that took antidepressants for one to five years had a 56% higher risk of sudden cardiac death, while those using antidepressants for six or more years had a 2.2 times higher risk than those who were not on antidepressants at all.
“Exposure time to antidepressants was associated with a higher risk of sudden cardiac death, and linked to how long the person had been exposed to antidepressants,” study co-author Dr. Jasmin Mujkanovic of Rigshospitalet Hjertecentret, Copenhagen, Denmark, said in the press release …