Seniors, side effects and chemical cocktails

Older people who start taking antidepressants may already be taking other drugs for different problems. These drugs can interact with the antidepressants to create a number of side effects which can put people off taking antidepressants. Researchers from Thomson Reuters, the University of Southern California and Sanofi-Aventis studied 39,000 older people who started taking antidepressants between 2001 and 2006. More than 25% were prescribed antidepressants and another drug that could cause a major interaction and another 36% were at risk of less-severe drug interactions. The most common side effects caused by drug interactions were insomnia, somnolence and drowsiness which occurred in 2.6% of people with the next most common being dizziness (1.1%). Only 45% of people who had documented side effects refilled their prescription for the same antidepressant and a quarter stopped taking antidepressants altogether.