is your medication making you (mentally) ill ?

Many commonly-prescribed drugs may increase the risk of depression, a new study finds

An American study including 25,000+ adults found that 37% of the medications they reported taking (over a 9-year period) listed depression as one of their side-effects.

As a matter of fact, 7.6% (+50% compared to the baseline risk) of those taking one of these drugs displayed depressive symptoms. The rate reached 9% (+80%) for those taking two, and even 15% (+300%) for those taking three or more.

These medications included very commonly prescribed birth control pills, painkilers, as well as antacids.

Although the reason for this correlation are still unclear, the reason is sometimes quite straightforward--e.g., in t he case of oral contraceptives, which affect hormonal activity.

Source: Olfson et alia (2018)