High blood pressure affects almost one in three Americans but the medications that treat this issue may lead to increased risk of depression and other mental problems. The right causes of these health problems are still unknown while there are new ways to prevent and treat these health issues.
Common Prescriptions That Can Cause Mental Disorders
A study points out that medications used for treating high blood pressure, such as calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers and angiotensin antagonists can lead to various mental conditions such as bipolar disorder and depression.
According the Washington Post, people who use calcium channel blocker or beta blocker are more prone to mood disorder rather than those using angiotensin antagonist.
Contrary, those who took angiotensin antagonist have 53% less chances to be hospitalized with a mood disorder than those who did not take any medication for blood pressure. However, thiazide diuretics do not cause any risk of mood disorder.
These results are based on medical reports of 144, 066 adults at the age of 56. About 32 130 people were using medications for high blood pressure. These people were analyzed for 5 years and 299 of them were hospitalized due to mood disorder.
Also, there are other findings which show the relation of cardiovascular disease and depression but the hypertensive practices do not consider depression. Dr. Sandosh Padmanabhan stated for the CNN that this statement validates earlier findings but means that the blood pressure medications can be repurposed for mental conditions. This was a kind of observational study because the researchers are not sure what happens at a molecular level to cause these results.
These results are important because of prevention methods and exploration of new treatments of depression. There are some people who should not prescribed these drugs but are predisposed to depression. Padmanabham stated for CNN that if angiotensin blockers are protective then they should be repurposed.
Via Web MD