Do antidepressants put you at greater risk for premature death?

A meta analysis of a huge amount of people on prolonged antidepressant therapy showed a higher risk of heart attacks & strokes as well as a 33% greater risk of death. Can we blame the medications or the depression for these stats??

As Dr Colantino indicates, there seems to be a trend to increased death rates in depressed patients taking antidepressants. Sorting out the precise causes would be valuable, but this whole class of drugs, over time, can increase suicide risk, and chronic use over several years appears to be unwise. Safer, in my opinion, would be cognitive-behavioral therapy, aerobic exercise, socialization.