Reactions 1412 - 28 Jul 2012

SCitalopram/escitalopram

Urinary retention: case reportA woman in her early 30’s developed urinary retention

while receiving citalopram and escitalopram [routes notstated].

The woman was receiving citalopram 20mg daily for ananxiety disorder. Treatment provided incomplete relieffrom her anxiety, and the dose had not been further titratedas she developed urinary retention, which had occurredconsistently while she was receiving citalopram [durationof treatment to reaction onset not stated]. She becamepregnant, and citalopram was withdrawn due to urinaryretention. However, her anxiety symptoms worsened, andshe restarted citalopram.

Citalopram was switched to escitalopram 10mg daily, toattempt to reduce the woman’s urinary symptoms.However, after 4 weeks, there was no improvement in herurinary retention, with minimal improvement in heranxiety. She then received mirtazapine. Over 12 weeks, hermirtazapine dosage was titrated to 45mg daily, and herurinary symptoms unexpectedly resolved, with significantimprovement in her anxiety. Three months later, hermirtazapine dosage was reduced to 30mg due to increasedappetite and weight-gain secondary to mirtazapine. Within1 week, her urinary retention and anxiety symptomsreturned. Her mirtazapine dosage was titrated to 45mg,and her urinary symptoms resolved within a few days. Atlast follow-up, she remained without urinary retentionsymptoms.Lenze EJ. Reversal of SSRI-associated urinary retention with mirtazapineaugmentation. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 32: 434, No. 3, Jun 2012.Available from: URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JCP.0b013e3182548c12 -USA 803074221

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Reactions 28 Jul 2012 No. 14120114-9954/10/1412-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved