Antidepressants and Fracture Risk in Older Adults: A Comparative Safety Analysis

We examined variations in fracture rates among patients initiated on antidepressant drug treatment as identified from Medicare data in two US states and assessed whether the observed variation could be explained by affinity for serotonin transport receptors. We used Cox proportional hazards models to compare fracture rates of the hip, humerus, pelvis, wrist, and a composite of these, among propensity score-matched cohorts of users of secondary amine tricyclics, tertiary amine tricyclics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and atypical antidepressants. As compared with secondary amine tricyclics, SSRIs showed the highest association with composite fracture rate (hazard ratio 1.30; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.52), followed by atypical antidepressants (hazard ratio 1.12; 95% CI 0.96-1.31) and tertiary amine tricyclics (hazard ratio 1.01; 95% CI 0.87-1.18). The results were robust to sensitivity analyses. Although SSRI use was associated with the highest rate of fractures, variation in fracture risk across specific antidepressant medications did not depend on affinity for serotonin transport receptors.