Are there any risks to taking antidepressants long-term?
For the older ADs (the MAOIs and TCAs) that have been around for more than 30 years there is no evidence of long-term complications of treatment. That is, there is no evidence that life threatening conditions such as heart, kidney or liver problems are more likely to develop as a result of being on the AD for many years. The newer generation of ADs has only been available for 10 years; thus sufficient time has not passed to definitively answer the question about long- term risk. To date, however, there is no evidence that chronic treatment with these medications causes any type of long-term complications.
