Some patients who are new users of antidepressants such as Paxil and Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may run a risk of abnormal bleeding, researchers said on Monday. The problem may develop because serotonin appears to play a role in blood clotting and manipulating its levels may lead to abnormal uterine and gastrointestinal bleeding, said the report from the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Netherlands. The study, which ran from 1992 to 2000, looked at 64,000 patients recently been put on the depressants, of whom 196 suffered abnormal bleeding. The patients were classified as to whether the drugs worked at high, medium or low levels as far as serotonin was involved. The report is in the Nov. 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
