The widely used pills may increase the chance of GI bleeding, but a new study also indicates the risk remains low. The research, which was published in The Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, and found bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract is more common in people taking the drugs than those who don’t.

The study examined 1,321 people treated for upper GI bleeding and about 10,000 people of the same age and sex who did not have such bleeding. The results - 5.3 percent of those with bleeding were taking SSRIs, while 3 percent who didn’t have GI bleeding were taking SSRIs. The risk was even higher in people taking SSRIs and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs.

Risk factors include a peptic ulcer or being elderly. The study, which indicated that taking acid-suppressing drugs cut the risk, was paid for by AstraZeneca, which makes the top-selling acid-reflux and ulcer pill Nexium, as well as Prilosec, which is now sold as a generic. Here is the abstract.

The study, by the way, also found increased risk for GI bleeding among those taking Wyeth’s Effexor, which is a different type of antidepressant, known as an SNRI. Among those on Effexor, 1.1 percent experienced GI bleeding, compared to 0.3 percent of those not bleeding while also taking the drug.

“The risk in the general population taking SSRIs is very low - 1 case in 2,000 patients treated - and no specific action is required if the antidepressant is correctly indicated by a physician,” Francisco de Abajo of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Products, who helped lead the study in the Archives of General Psychiatry, told Reuters.

“People with other relevant risk factors for GI bleeding should be considered for protecting their stomach with acid-suppressing agents. By no means, patients treated correctly with SSRIs should discontinue their treatment because of the fear (of having) a GI bleeding risk,” de Abajo added.

De Abajo said he was involved in research published in 1999 suggesting an increased risk of GI bleeding in people taking SSRIs, but that other studies had questioned that finding.