{"id":32245,"date":"2026-04-20T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=32245"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:14:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:14:40","slug":"antidepressants-and-janes-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart","title":{"rendered":"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jane was seriously worried. Terrified, in fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to die!\u201d (She handed me an article printed from the internet.) \u201cBut this \u2018Sudden Cardiac Death\u2019 from taking antidepressants sounds terrible. And look, it\u2019s three times the rate among people who take the antidepressant that I\u2019m taking, Lexapro, escitalopram, mine, right? than people who don\u2019t take it. I want off!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhoa! Wait!\u201d, I answered. \u201cWith 15% of Americans taking one of the SSRIs (Prozac, Lexapro, Celexa, Zoloft) or SNRIs (Effexor <a href=\"http:\/\/et.al\/\"><u>et.al<\/u><\/a>) this is quite a lot of people. But you don\u2019t see Clybourn Avenue in front of WholeHealth Chicago clogged with bodies. Let\u2019s talk first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The heart risks of the antidepressants have been known for years, probably an effect on the way electrical current passes through the heart muscle itself, triggering a fatal arrhythmia, fortunately quite rare. The heart effect is both \u2018dose-related,\u2019 meaning, \u2018the more you take, the higher the risk.\u2019 But it\u2019s also related to how long you\u2019ve been taking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s start with what we treated in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Symptoms of depression (called Major Depressive Disorder or MDD). These mean two weeks or longer of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sadness and low mood,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of interest or pleasure,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Difficulty concentrating,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sleeping too much or not enough,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Feelings of guilt or worthlessness,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thoughts of ending one\u2019s life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This differs from symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) also treated with SSR. Including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Excessive Worry: Excessive anxiety and worry, occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Di\ufb03culty Controlling Worry<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Associated Symptoms: The anxiety is associated with three or more of the following (with at least some symptoms present for more days than not in the past 6 months):<ul><li>Restlessness or feeling keyed up\/on edge.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Being easily fatigued.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Di\ufb03culty concentrating or mind going blank.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Irritability.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Muscle tension.<\/li><\/ul>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sleep disturbance (di\ufb03culty falling\/staying asleep, or restless sleep).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Functional Impairment: The anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJane?\u201d I asked, \u201cYou remember your anxiety? Pretty horrible, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d Nod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any psychiatrist will tell you there\u2019s nothing quite as horrible as deep depression or severe generalized anxiety and when you can turn the symptoms around with an SSRI or an SNRI, it\u2019s miraculous, and nobody, patient or doctor, wants to go back to the dark place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, concerning the SCD (Sudden Cardiac Death) study\u2014 they\u2019re comparing patients on SSRIs with the general population <strong><em>not taking any psych meds. <\/em><\/strong>And yes, the SCD rate is 2.2 times higher. But they\u2019re not comparing patients on SSRIs with untreated patients suffering depression or severe anxiety. This is very important because untreated patients with mental illness are well known to have a higher rate of SCD than the general population. This is caused by the wide spectrum of causes of heart disease in the first place (lifestyle issues, health neglect, stress and blood pressure, poor sleep, etc., etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I suggested to Jane was this: if she really wants off her medication (although she\u2019s hesitating now), work with her practitioner or find a psychiatrist and plan to go slowly (weeks, usually). More than likely her brain will completely return to its premedication functioning, minus the anxiety, although she may be more comfortable with a small dose indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep in mind there are quite a few ways to deal with depression and anxiety besides pharmaceuticals. I hate to sound cynical about this, your health insurer LOVES it when you\u2019re on an antidepressant: you\u2019re calm, passive, reasonably happy, and your generic Lexapro costs him only about $20 A YEAR. Moreover, he doesn\u2019t have to salary a clerk to sit by a computer and deny your psychotherapy claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pay out of pocket for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and consider it a gym membership for your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Work on the nutritional treatment of mental illness, try Yoga, acupuncture, T\u2019ai chi, or learn the guitar and sing loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Edelberg, MD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jane was seriously worried. Terrified, in fact. \u201cI don\u2019t want to die!\u201d (She handed me an article printed from the internet.) \u201cBut this \u2018Sudden Cardiac Death\u2019 from taking antidepressants sounds terrible. And look, it\u2019s three times the rate among people who take the antidepressant that I\u2019m taking, Lexapro, escitalopram, mine, right? than people who don\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4902,"featured_media":32247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2886,139,2259,34],"tags":[1338,100,2071,192,1014,1227,2713],"class_list":["post-32245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anxiety-and-depression","category-cardiovascular-health","category-depression","category-mental-health","tag-anti-depressants","tag-anxiety","tag-cardiovascular-health","tag-depression","tag-heart-health","tag-mental-health","tag-ssris-and-antidepressants"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jane was seriously worried. Terrified, in fact. \u201cI don\u2019t want to die!\u201d (She handed me an article printed from the internet.) \u201cBut this \u2018Sudden Cardiac Death\u2019 from taking antidepressants sounds terrible. And look, it\u2019s three times the rate among people who take the antidepressant that I\u2019m taking, Lexapro, escitalopram, mine, right? than people who don\u2019t [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wholehealthchicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T02:00:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1435\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart\",\"name\":\"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-21T02:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1435},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\",\"description\":\"WholeHealth Chicago is the Midwest&#039;s oldest and most respected center for integrative care, successfully blending the latest advances in conventional medicine with a wide range of clinically proven alternative therapies.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3\",\"name\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/author\/kdillard\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago","og_description":"Jane was seriously worried. Terrified, in fact. \u201cI don\u2019t want to die!\u201d (She handed me an article printed from the internet.) \u201cBut this \u2018Sudden Cardiac Death\u2019 from taking antidepressants sounds terrible. And look, it\u2019s three times the rate among people who take the antidepressant that I\u2019m taking, Lexapro, escitalopram, mine, right? than people who don\u2019t [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart","og_site_name":"WholeHealth Chicago","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wholehealthchicago","article_published_time":"2026-04-21T02:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1435,"url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"WholeHealth Chicago","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@wholehealthchi","twitter_site":"@wholehealthchi","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"WholeHealth Chicago","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart","name":"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART - WholeHealth Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-04-21T02:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/anti-depression-scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1435},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/20\/antidepressants-and-janes-heart#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND JANE\u2019S HEART"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/","name":"WholeHealth Chicago","description":"WholeHealth Chicago is the Midwest&#039;s oldest and most respected center for integrative care, successfully blending the latest advances in conventional medicine with a wide range of clinically proven alternative therapies.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3","name":"WholeHealth Chicago","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"WholeHealth Chicago"},"url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/author\/kdillard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32246,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245\/revisions\/32246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}