WASHINGTON — Aside from pesky side effects like nausea and headaches, hormonal contraceptives are generally considered quite safe and effective. But researchers Wednesday identified a heightened risk of an unintended consequence: depression.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found women using hormonal contraception faced a higher rate of developing depression and using antidepressants than women who did not use the drugs.

Oral contraceptives that combine two key hormones, a type widely used by Americans, increased women’s rate of taking antidepressants by 23 percent. Among teens using these contraceptives, the rate nearly doubled.

Links between hormonal contraceptives and depression have been raised in the past, but this Danish study is among the largest to date.

More than 1 million women were tracked over a 10-year period through a national database. The participants, all between ages 15 and 34 years old, did not suffer from major mental health disorders.

The researchers collected data regarding women’s use of several types of contraceptives, as well as when they first used their antidepressants or received a depression diagnosis.

The oral options studied were progestin-only contraception, which consists of a compound that mimics the hormone progesterone; and the combination contraceptives, which work by combining progestin with estrogen.

Both prevent pregnancy by stopping ovulation, or egg production, thickening the lining of the cervix to make it harder for sperm to get into the uterus and thinning the lining of the uterus to help stop eggs from implanting there.

While birth control benefits women in many ways, Dr. Ojvind Lidegaard, clinical professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of the study, said patients and physicians should be informed of the side effects shown in this research.

“We have to realize among all the benefits, external hormones (also) may have side effects. And the risk of depression is one of them,” Lidegaard said. “And we have to manage our clients, younger and older, about what kind of contraception they can have the most benefit from.”

But Dr. Cora Breuner, a Seattle pediatrician and chair of the committee on adolescents for the American Academy of Pediatrics, cautioned against overreacting to the study.