NEW YORK, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors, widely prescribed for mood disorders, were found in a recent study to increase bone loss but researchers may also have found a way to prevent it from occurring.
The antidepressant fluoxetine, marketed as Prozac, caused bone loss in experiments with mice, report researchers at Columbia University Medical Center report in a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, but the use of a beta blocker appeared to prevent this loss in further experiments.
Although SSRIs have previously been linked to increased risk for bone fracture, researchers had not previously found how the drug does so.
Initially, fluoxetine protects bone by inhibiting cells in the skeleton that break down from doing so, but after weeks of treatment the drug triggers a signal in the brain that counteracts the protective effect and impairs formation of bone.
When researchers added a beta-blocker to the rodent's treatment, propranolol, they found the effects of bone loss were were not seen, while the therapeutic effect of fluoxetine on the brain and mood remained unaltered.
Researchers say, however, the threat of bone loss, especially for aging people, makes the findings significant because of the common use of SSRIs.
"Adding low-dose propranolol to depression treatment could potentially block an SSRI's deleterious effect on bone mass," said Dr. Patricia Ducy, an associate professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University Medical Center, said in a press release. "[This] may be particularly important for peri- and postmenopausal women since they are already at risk of developing osteoporosis."
