A study has indicated that combination of
two common drugs - one an antidepressant, the other a cholesterol
lowering drug - may increase the risk of diabetes in people.
To look for drug combinations that might trigger diabetes, Nicholas
Tatonetti and Russ Altman of Stanford University in California turned
to a database called the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), run by
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The Stanford researchers teamed up with colleagues at Harvard University and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and found that the combination of antidepressant paroxetine and pravastatin, which is used to lower blood cholesterol, caused blood sugar to rise - especially in patients who were already diabetic.
Finally, the researchers showed that mice made "pre-diabetic" by giving them a diet laden with fat and sugar showed a similar spike in blood sugar when given the drug combination. Neither drug caused blood sugar to rise when given alone.
"We were very surprised that it was so specific to these two drugs," the New Scientist quoted Tatonetti as saying. (ANI)
