Reactions 990 - 28 Feb 2004

★Citalopram

First report of dystonia: case reportA 17-year-old boy developed dystonia of his jaw muscles

during treatment with citalopram for depression.The boy, who had a history of depressive symptoms and

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, was hospitalised9 days after discontinuing his sertraline and methylphenidatetreatment. Both drugs were restarted 5 days after admissionand, the next day, sertraline was switched to citalopram10 mg/day. After 4 days he reported that his tongue wasswollen; a food allergy was suspected and he was treated withdiphenhydramine. However, 30 minutes later he experiencedasymmetric contraction of his jaw muscles and severe jawpain.

The boy was treated with benzatropine and his dystoniaresolved completely. Citalopram was switched to venlafaxinewithout recurrence of his dystonia.

Author comment: "To our knowledge, this is the firstpublished report of EPS [extrapyramidal symptoms] associatedwith citalopram and, as noted, only the second reported caseof dystonia secondary to SSRI administration in anadolescent."Najjar F, et al. Citalopram and dystonia. Journal of the American Academy ofChild and Adolescent Psychiatry 43: 8-9, No. 1, Jan 2004 - USA 800972035

» Editorial comment: A search of AdisBase and Medline didnot reveal any previous case reports of dystonia associated withcitalopram. The WHO Adverse Drug Reactions databasecontained 78 reports of dystonia associated with citalopram.

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Reactions 28 Feb 2004 No. 9900114-9954/10/0990-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved