Antidepressant Use May Aid Outcomes in Depression and Diabetes

FRIDAY, July 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Regular antidepressant use is associated with a lower risk for diabetes complications among adults with depression and newly treated diabetes, according to a study published online July 14 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Chi-Shin Wu, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, and colleagues examined the association between antidepressant treatment and advanced diabetic complications and mortality in a retrospective cohort study of 36,276 patients with depression and newly treated diabetes using the Taiwan universal health insurance database. Within a six-month window, antidepressant treatment patterns were classified into none, poor, partial, and regular use.

The researchers found that regular use of antidepressants was associated with a 0.92-fold reduced risk for macrovascular complications and with a 0.86-fold reduced risk for all-cause mortality compared with poor antidepressant use; no association was seen with microvascular complications. There were associations observed between regular use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and a 0.83-fold and 0.75-fold reduced risk for macrovascular complications and all-cause mortality, respectively. The risk for all-cause mortality was reduced 0.78-fold in association with regular use of tricyclic or tetracyclic antidepressants. No association was seen for regular use of benzodiazepines with diabetes outcomes.

“Clinicians should emphasize antidepressant treatment adherence among patients with depression and diabetes mellitus,” the authors write.

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