It’s not been a good news week for SSRIs, a popular and common class of antidepressants that are widely prescribed by family physicians, interns and psychiatrists alike.
A study released in the journal Ophthalmology showed that in seniors, SSRIs can increase the risk of developing cataracts in your eye by 15 percent in general. But researchers found it was even worse for some specific kinds of antidepressants — Fluvoxamine (Luvox) increases the risk by 39 percent, venlafaxine (Effexor) increases the risk by 33 percent and paroxetine (Paxil) increases the risk by 23 percent.
A separate study also published this week found that taking SSRI antidepressant medications (and the SNRI Effexor) significantly increased — by 68 percent — the risk of miscarriage.
Read on for the details…
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This explains allot and why my eyesight has been getting worse over the past few years along with cataracts running in my family so on top of already at risk for cataracts my chances now increase an extra 33 percent.. pros, cons, pros, cons, always have to weigh everything out
When I got off all the psych meds my vision improved dramatically. My optometrist couldn’t believe the change the in my prescription. Those drug cocktails sure can mess up a person’s vision.
Even the dosage of some with amphetamines could be very worried for health specially when in the other hand the battle against diabetes and related disease is on course.
I was so terribly sad when SSRIs came out I know they saved my life and made it a life I could stand- sometimes enjoy.
I would give sex drive, cataracts etc for the ability to live a more or less normal life- not fabulously happy- just NORMAL. Anyone who has had longterm serious depression might see it as a no brainer- so to speak.
This is interesting to me beacuse my youngest daughter was born with cateracts and the doctors ran tests and we could not figure out exactly why she was born with them. I did take antidepressants such as paxil and zoloft before she was concieved.I wonder now if this could have been what the problem was.