WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new study has found that some psychiatric medications may raise the risk of developing ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative condition, by upto six times.
The research, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed national health records from Sweden, comparing over 1,000 people diagnosed with ALS between 2015 and 2023 to more than 5,000 people without the disease. The groups were matched for age and gender.
Even after accounting for genetics and environmental factors, the study found a strong link between ALS and the use of multiple psychiatric drugs.
People with ALS were more than six times as likely to have been prescribed two or more psychiatric medications in the year before their diagnosis compared to people without ALS.
Even further back, the risk remained higher. Between one and five years before diagnosis, the risk was 1.6 times higher, and more than five years before diagnosis, it was still 1.2 times higher.
However, the study does not prove that these medications directly cause ALS. It's also possible that early symptoms of ALS or other underlying health issues may have led to the prescriptions.
'In this case-control study, prescribed use of anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, or antidepressants was associated with a higher subsequent risk of ALS,' the researchers wrote.
'Prediagnostic use of such medications was also associated with a poor prognosis after ALS diagnosis.'
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