Antidepressants can cause weight gain, diabetes
Antidepressants taken by hundreds of thousands of people may increase the chances of developing diabetes, researchers warn.
A major study involving more than a million patients has shown that those taking all antidepressant pills are at far higher risk from the condition.
Academics from Southampton University think this may be because antidepressants cause weight gain which in turn leads to type 2 diabetes.
But despite the strong link, they cannot be sure that the pills are definitely causing the condition.
Patients on antidepressants are more likely to be overweight so have a higher risk of developing diabetes in the first place than healthy individuals.
The numbers of Britons taking antidepressants has soared in the last decade and more than 50 million prescriptions were handed out by GPs last year compared to just 20 million in 1999.
But experts say doctors are handing out the pills too freely without considering the possible long-term side effects.
In one of the largest studies of its kind, academics from Southampton University looked at 25 research papers that involved just over a million patients.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, found many patients were developing type 2 diabetes – the commonest form – after they had been prescribed antidepressants, which suggests the pills cause the illness.
