Premenopausal depression linked to osteoporosis risk.

Depression in premenopausal women is as big a risk factor for osteoporosis as smoking, US research has shown.

This study rules out the use of SSRIs as a cause of osteoporosis, but suggests that an imbalance in the immune or inflammatory systems in women with depression may be to blame.

For the study, rate of bone loss was examined using X-ray absorptiometry in 89 women who had been diagnosed with mild depression, or had recently suffered a depressive episode, and 44 women without depression. All were aged 21 to 45.

The two groups were similar for all other osteoporosis risk factors. Over the course of the two year study, researchers found that 17 …