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Editorial
January 2, 2019

A Status Update on the Association Between Antidepressants and Fractures: Breaking Up?

Author Affiliations
  • 1Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • 4Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • 5Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, Michigan
JAMA Psychiatry. 2019;76(2):113-114. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3632

Advances in psychopharmacology promised various safe, evidence-based treatment options for older adults with mental health and cognitive disorders. Benzodiazepines replaced barbiturates, atypical antipsychotics would make conventional agents obsolete, and new antidepressant classes, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, would take over from the tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors. While each of these new classes have offered significant treatment benefits—typically because of fewer adverse effects—the recognized risks for each has steadily grown the longer the newer class is used.

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