The Washington Post (10/17, Searing) reports that people taking certain antihypertensives to treat high blood pressure may be at an increased risk of “depression or other mood disorders,” research suggests. Researchers examined medical records of 32,130 people “taking one of four types of drugs to control high blood pressure: beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin antagonists (including ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers) and thiazide diuretics.” They followed participants for five years and found that people taking “a beta blocker or calcium channel blocker were twice as likely to have been hospitalized with a mood disorder as those taking an angiotensin antagonist.” The findings were published online in Hypertension.
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— “Blood pressure drugs linked to depression and other mental-health disorders,” Linda Searing, Washington Post, October 17, 2016.