(Press-News.org) Antidepressants can differ widely in how they physically affect the body, including around a 4 kg difference in weight change between certain drugs (approximately 2.5 kg weight loss from agomelatine and 2kg weight gain from maprotiline), confirms a systematic review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet. The authors emphasise that these findings should not deter people from taking antidepressants, which remain vital and effective treatments for mental health conditions. Instead, they say the results highlight the importance of tailoring the treatment to each individual, taking into account their personal health and preferences.
This large-scale systematic review and network meta-analysis combined results from 151 clinical trials and 17 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports involving over 58,000 participants to assess the effect of 30 different antidepressants on the body over an average of eight weeks course of treatment. The study found that antidepressants also differ in their effects on heart rate, with a difference of more than a 20 beats-per-minute difference in heart rate (approximately eight BPM decrease for fluvoxamine and a 14 BPM increase for nortriptyline); and blood pressure, with a difference of over 10 mmHg variation in blood pressure (approximately seven mmHg decrease for nortriptyline and a five mmHg increase for doxepin).
The study estimates that some antidepressants (e.g., maprotiline and amitriptyline) were associated with weight gain in almost half of individuals prescribed them, while other antidepressants (agomelatine) were associated with weight loss in 55% of patients. Most antidepressants did not show major effects on kidney or liver function, electrolyte levels, or heart rhythm. The authors also note that it is not known if antidepressant-induced physical effects persist or change over time, and more research is needed to understand how antidepressants affect the body over longer time periods.
The authors say their results suggest that treatment guidelines should be updated to reflect the differing physical side effects of antidepressants, and decisions about which drug to use should always be made by the doctor and patient on an individual basis. They also note that other effects of antidepressants were not covered in their study, such as sexual or emotional changes and differences in drug effectiveness, and these should also be considered alongside these results.
END
The Lancet: Antidepressants vary widely in their physical side effects, highlighting the need for personalised prescribing, says major meta-analysis
2025-10-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Scientists discover clean and green way to recycle Teflon®
2025-10-21
New research demonstrates a simple, eco-friendly method to break down Teflon® – one of the world’s most durable plastics – into useful chemical building blocks.
Scientists from Newcastle University and the University of Birmingham have developed a clean and energy-efficient way to recycle Teflon® (PTFE), a material best known for its use in non-stick coatings and other applications that demand high chemical and thermal stability.
The researchers discovered that waste Teflon® can be broken down and repurposed using only sodium metal and mechanical energy – movement by shaking - at room temperature and without toxic ...
‘Messy’ galaxies in the early universe struggled to settle
2025-10-21
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have captured the most detailed look yet at how galaxies formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang – and found they were far more chaotic and messy than those we see today.
The team, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, analysed more than 250 young galaxies that existed when the universe was between 800 million and 1.5 billion years old. By studying the movement of gas within these galaxies, the researchers ...
Global supply chains benefit most from who you know
2025-10-21
In a time of tariffs and political trade disputes, new UBC Okanagan research shows that it’s not what you know but who you know.
And how well you treat them.
The research demonstrates that strong and strategic international alliances—not just diversification—are key to protecting supply chains from political trade disruptions.
Dr. Amin Ahmadi Digehsara, Assistant Professor in UBCO’s Faculty of Management, says creating strong global supply chain networks requires countries to make strategic decisions about facility locations, how to allocate capacity and how to manage operations across ...
While searching for the world’s oldest ice, scientists find sediment sneaking under the Antarctic ice sheet
2025-10-21
For decades, researchers seeking to understand global climate change have analyzed ice cores drilled deep within the Antarctic ice sheet. This ice traps chemicals and bubbles of ancient air that tell the story of how Earth’s climate has changed over time.
To develop a precise climate record, researchers seek to find continuous ice that’s uninterrupted, frozen in chronological order with newest ice at the top and the oldest ice at the bottom.
Until recently, the oldest continuous ice core samples went back as far as 800,000 years, just when Earth’s ...
Contrasting risk profiles for suicide attempt and suicide
2025-10-21
About The Study: In this case-control study, risk factors for suicide attempt and suicide incompletely overlapped and may present distinct opportunities for prevention, risk prediction, and suicide-risk screening.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Fenfen Ge, MD, PhD, email ffge.ncrr@au.dk.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.3444)
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding ...
Future-focused conservation index identifies reptiles as highest conservation priority
2025-10-21
Reptiles could overtake amphibians as the highest priority for conservation among vertebrates as threats like climate change and invasive species worsen in the future, according to a new conservation index tool developed by Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and Université Paris-Saclay, France, and colleagues, publishing October 21st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Climate change, habitat loss, and the overexploitation of nature are driving wildlife population declines and extinctions ...
Ideological polarization and the spread of biased or fake news on Facebook are on the rise, according to a study by the UPF
2025-10-21
A study led by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) confirms the rise in ideological polarization and biased or false news posted on Facebook. This groundbreaking research analyzed over 6 million news-related URLs – from 1,231 different domains in the United States – shared on Facebook between 2017 and 2020.
The news stories from these four years covered such significant events as the COVID pandemic, the 2020 US presidential elections (which culminated in the attack on Congress following Trump’s loss) and the 2018 midterm elections, in which all seats ...
New study reveals how tiny but powerful gatekeepers guard the nucleus
2025-10-21
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are tiny but sophisticated gatekeepers that control the flow of materials between a cell’s nucleus and its cytoplasm by quickly selecting which molecules to transport across the nuclear membrane. Because NPCs are involved in most key cellular processes, when the transport system goes awry, numerous diseases can result, especially those of a neurodegenerative nature.
How each NPC makes a split-second decision about which molecules to allow to pass through its molecular gate is one of biology’s oldest mysteries. Now researchers from The Rockefeller University, working with ...
Discovery of a brown dwarf orbiting a red dwarf through the synergy of ground- and space-based observatories
2025-10-21
M dwarfs, or red dwarfs, are the most common type of star in our galaxy, accounting for more than half of all stars in the Milky Way. These small, cool stars are key targets for understanding the processes of stellar and planetary formation and evolution. However, because M dwarfs are intrinsically faint, detailed observations have historically been limited, and early surveys suggested that more than 70% of them were single stars. Recent advances in observational techniques, however, have revealed that this picture was incomplete: the frequency of low-mass ...
CPA journal wins prestigious award at high-quality development conference
2025-10-21
From October 19 to 21, 2025, the "Science Journal High-Quality Development Seminar and the 12th Anniversary of KeAi" was successfully held at the Portman Seven Stars Bay Hotel in Xiamen. Organized by Beijing KeAi Senlan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., the conference gathered experts and scholars from the field of journal publishing both domestically and internationally to discuss strategies for high-quality development in scientific publishing.
The "Current Pharmaceutical Analysis" (CPA) journal was honored with the "Great Progress Award" for its significant advancements in journal development and ...