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• Posted July 8, 2025

Common Meds Aren't Linked To Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Study Says

There’s no evidence that common medications can trigger a chronic inflammatory bowel disease called microscopic colitis, a new study says.

Microscopic colitis is responsible for more than 30% of all chronic diarrhea cases in seniors, and cases are rising worldwide, researchers said in background notes.

Previous studies had suggested that a wide range of meds could trigger the condition, including NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen, blood pressure medications like ACE inhibitors, and depression drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), researchers said.

But a large-scale study of more than 2.8 million people in Sweden has found that these medications aren’t associated with an increased risk of microscopic colitis, researchers reported recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Our study demonstrated that, contrary to the previous belief, it’s unlikely that medications are the primary triggers for microscopic colitis,” lead researcher Dr. Hamed Khalili, director of clinical research at the Crohn's and Colitis Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a news release.

“Clinicians should carefully balance the intended benefits of these medications against the very low likelihood that they cause microscopic colitis,” he added.

Analysis revealed that the risk of developing microscopic colitis was less than 0.5% overall, and there was no association between the condition and taking ACE inhibitors, antiotensin II receptor blocker drugs (ARBs), proton pump inhibitors or statins.

People taking SSRIs did have a 0.04% increased risk of microscopic colitis, but that might be because folks on those drugs are more likely to have the condition discovered through a colonoscopy, researchers said.

“Our analyses suggest that surveillance bias is a likely explanation for earlier findings that implicated medications in the pathogenesis of microscopic colitis and may also explain the continued association with SSRIs,” senior researcher Dr. Jonas Ludvigsson, a professor of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in a news release.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on microscopic colitis.

SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, June 30, 2025