Weighing the benefits of antidepressants against the costs of their potential side effects can be tricky for the millions of Americans who take these prescription drugs.

But a large new study examining the impact of 30 antidepressants on weight, blood pressure and heart rate should help guide future prescribing practices, the researchers said . MORE: Receiving gene therapy for hemophilia changed this South Jersey man's life

The research, published Tuesday in The Lancet , was the most "comprehensive and carefully done" meta-analysis of these drugs' side effects, Dr. Andrew J. Gerber, a psychiatrist and the president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, told The New York Times . Gerber was not involved in the research.

More than 15 million

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