Susan J. Diem, MD, MPH, interviewed by Norman Sussman, MD
What did your study on the use of antidepressants and rates of hip bone loss in older women reveal?
Using data collected over a 4.5 year period in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures,1 we compared the rate of bone loss in older women who use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to the rate of bone loss in older women who do not use SSRIs. We found that the women taking SSRIs had a bone loss rate of approximately 0.8% per year while the women not taking SSRIs had a bone loss rate of approximately 0.5% per year.