People who have hospitalized with a heart attack or severe angina - known by the umbrella term “acute coronary syndrome” - appear to be less likely to have certain heart-related events subsequently if they’re taking a type of antidepressant called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or SSRI, researchers report.

Apart from relieving depression, SSRI drugs also stop platelets from clumping together, the authors note in the American Journal of Medicine, and they suspect this characteristic may benefit heart patients.

“Although additional studies are needed to verify the findings of our study,” lead investigator Dr. Roy C. Ziegelstein told Reuters Health, “the platelet effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may reduce the likelihood of certain complications at the expense of increased bleeding in patients with heart disease.”

Ziegelstein, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues point out that SSRIs are often used to treat anxiety and depression in people with coronary heart disease.

To see if this might have an effect on patients’ outcomes, the researchers studied in-hospital events in 1254 patients with acute coronary syndromes. All of them were on standard anti-platelet medications and blood thinners.

The 158 patients who were taking an SSRI were significantly less likely to suffer a recurrence of angina or to develop heart failure than 158 similar patients who were not taking an SSRI, the investigators report.

Because of the increased inhibition of platelets, the risk of bleeding was higher in the SSRI group, but the likelihood of major bleeding that could cause serious complications was the same in both groups.

The team calls for larger studies, but concludes that doctors “should be aware of this association when treating patients with acute coronary syndrome.”

SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, June 2007.