Antidepressants 'reduce hot flushes' for women going through menopause

Taking antidepressants could cut hot flushes for women going through the menopause, say researchers.

The severity and number of hot flushes was halved in a trial comparing the drug Cipralex with a dummy pill.

It appears to work by damping down the reactions of blood vessels rather than by affecting women’s moods.

Drastic measure: But now there might be an easier way for menopausal women to handle hot flushes

Experts claim the findings offer an alternative for women who want to deal with menopausal problems without using hormone replacement therapy. U.S. investigators recruited 205 women who were randomly assigned ten to 20 milligrams a day of Cipralex, also known as escitalopram, or a placebo for eight weeks.

The women had on average 9.8 hot flushes per day, the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said.

But those taking the antidepressant had significantly fewer hot flushes than those on the placebo. Their flushes were also much less severe. After the women stopped taking anything, hot flushes increased in women who had been on the drug but not for those on the placebo.

Cipralex is one of a class of antidepressants that work by affecting the brain’s use of the chemical serotonin, which is thought to have a role in regulating body heat.

Research leader Ellen Freeman, of Pennsylvania University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, said the study suggests healthy women could take a ‘non-hormonal option that is effective and well-tolerated’ but added that more research was needed.