Taking antidepressants and painkillers together is associated with an increased risk of bleeding, according to a recent study NewsMax reported.

Researchers believe antidepressants may interact with common painkillers called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to increase the risk of bleeding inside the skull (intracranial hemorrhage), suggesting that special attention is needed when patients use both these classes of drugs together.

"The addition of NSAIDs to antidepressant treatment increased the risk of intracranial hemorrhage within 30 days of the combination starting, especially in men," researchers said in the study. "This result adds to evidence confirming the increase of risk with combination use of antidepressants and NSAIDs."

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Korean nationwide health insurance database, their study involved over four million people who were prescribed antidepressants for the first time between 2009 and 2013, The Washington Post reported. They used this information to compare the risk of bleeding among patients treated with antidepressants with and without NSAIDs.

The data was used to identify time to first admission with intracranial hemorrhage within 30 days of a new prescription. Factors that could affect the results, such as age, sex, and use of other medications, were taken into account.

Compared with use of antidepressants alone, the team found that combined use of antidepressants and NSAIDs was associated with a substantially increased bleeding risk.

"The incidence of intracranial hemorrhage in people taking antidepressants and NSAIDs was only 5.7 per 1,000 in a year. So about 0.5 percent of people taking these drugs will develop a (hemorrhage) over one year," Dr. Jill Morrison, a professor of general practice at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, told Newsmax.

They found no statistically meaningful differences in risk of bleeding between different types of antidepressant drugs, or with age. Being male was the most common factor for a higher risk of bleeding with combined use of antidepressants and NSAIDs.

The findings are detailed in The BMJ.