According to a new study, mental health illness such as mania and bipolar disorders may be caused by antidepressant therapy, particularly the use of Venlaxafine and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).
Past studies have also believed that antidepressant therapy causes acute symptoms of hypomania; however they were not able to establish a concrete evidence to prove it. The current study focuses on this with a sample of men and women aged 16 to 68 that are already diagnosed with depression.
The participants of the study were all undergoing mental health care from the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust between April 2006 and the end of March 2013. Each of the subjects were also diagnosed with depression but were never diagnosed with mania or bipolar disorder.
Researchers studied their records which revealed the patients' medical history, mental state examination, and treatment plans, so that health professionals can determine subsequent diagnoses of mania or bipolar disorder. After studying the data, they separated data on previous antidepressant use and successive diagnoses. There were a few antidepressant drugs which the researchers feel should be carefully studied.
Among the thousands of records that were reviewed, 994 were diagnosed with mania or bipolar disorder during a follow-up. The "peak-diagnosis" was with patients aging between 26-35 who were prescribed with SSRIs, Mirtazapine, Venlafaxine, and Tricyclics. However they discovered greater risk connected with the use of SSRIs and Venlafaxine.
Previous antidepressant use was linked with an increased risk of an after diagnosis of either mania or bipolar disorder, a risk that happens every year ranging from 1.3 to 1.9 percent. The researchers explained that their findings show a significant connection between antidepressant therapy in patients with unipolar depression and an increased occurrence of mania. They also added that this link stayed the same even after they adjusted factors such as, age and gender in the study.
