Elderly patients who take anti-depressants run a higher risk of getting osteoporosis, it has emerged.
Two studies found that patients who used drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat developed thinner bones.
Depression affects up to one in five people at some point in their lives, with 1.5million Britons aged 16 to 75 suffering from it at any time.
Last year, 16.2 million prescriptions for antidepressants called SSRIs were given, up from 14.7million in 2005. The selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors can trigger suicidal thoughts and self-harm and are not recommended for patients under 18.
The U.S. studies were published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from Oregon Health and Sciences University looked at almost 6,000 men aged at least 65.
And scientists at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis investigated 2,722 women with an average age of 80.
Both found hip bone density fell among patients taking SSRIs. The drugs inhibit a protein that carries serotonin, a brain chemical involved in depression. But the same protein also exists in bones.
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As I live in a mostly elderly complex and many of those who live here, including my own mother, are on anti-depressants. These are lonely and sometimes abandoned (by their families) individuals who are in various states of ill health. It is only my opinion, but many of the people in this group don't need anti-depressants, what they need is stimulation, activities and companionship.
My mom, who is now in very fragile health and suffers from osteoporosis and also has been on anti-depressants for many years, has in the last two years broken her hip, shattered her leg bone in her first fall, broken her arm, cracked her pelvis in her second fall and several months ago she fractured her sacrum and was in a nursing home for 6 weeks.
And my daughter wonders WHY I avoid doctors.