(RxWiki News) What do blood pressure medications have to do with mood disorders? According to new research, there may be a link.
This new research, published in the journal Hypertension, looked at several classes of medications: beta-blockers and calcium antagonists, angiotensin antagonists and thiazide diuretics.
The study authors found that patients taking beta-blockers and calcium antagonists were at a much higher risk of being admitted to the hospital for a mood disorder than those taking angiotensin antagonists, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-receptor blockers.
Patients taking thiazide diuretics did not show a different risk than those not on medication, these University of Glasgow researchers found.
These researchers did note that patients with other medical conditions also faced an increased risk of mood disorders.
This study involved more than 255,000 patients from Scotland. Of these, about 144,000 were being treated for high blood pressure. The researchers followed them for five years and documented hospitalizations for mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder.
"It is important that these results are validated in independent studies," said lead study author Dr. Sandosh Padmanabhan in a press release. "This is a single center study, which looked at the risk of the more severe forms of mood disorders requiring hospitalization. It would be important to study the effect of these drugs on minor to modest changes in mood, as these will have an impact on the quality of life among hypertensive patients."
Do not change your medication without talking to your doctor.
The British Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council, a Lister Institute Prize Fellowship and the Scottish Ecosystem for Precision Medicine funded this research. Information on potential conflicts of interest was not available at the time of publication.
