A systematic review on the genotoxic effect of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) antidepressants

Rationale Depression is a major mental disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are one of the antidepressant drugs prescribed for depression treatment. Objective and method There are many contradiction studies about the adverse effect and genotoxicity of SNRIs. So here, based on the guidelines proposed at the PRISMA statement, we performed a quantitative systematic review by searching international electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science) for published documents on SSNRIs and their genotoxicity effects. Results The database searches retrieved 336 records, 18 of which met the inclusion criteria. Evaluation of the selected articles showed that a total of 9 articles were appropriate for final review. Most of these studies (78%) reported positive results for the genotoxicity of SNRIs Conclusion Finally, we can conclude that these drugs have the potential to damage DNA.