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Citalopram Case Study

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Question: What are the possible complications for an adult AAM who has been diagnosed with depression and is also taking Citalopram and Trazadone every night?
Background: WJ is an African American male with depression, and chronic pain. Due to a tragic car accident, he is now permanently in a wheelchair. The patient has been taking 20 mg of citalopram and 50 mg of trazodone every night and has heard about possible complications from taking these medications together. The patient wants to know if there is any truth to this and what potential issues can arise. Information: Depression is much more than a momentary case of the blues. It is an ongoing problem that can considerably impair a person’s conduct, judgments, daily activities, …show more content…

Citalopram, which was one of the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is one of the antidepressant drugs that clinicians prescribe for routine generalized depression.3 “Thirty-seven trials compared citalopram with other antidepressants (such as tricyclics, heterocyclics, SSRIs and other antidepressants, either conventional ones, such as mirtazapine, venlafaxine and reboxetine, or non-conventional, like hypericum). Citalopram was shown to be significantly less effective than escitalopram in achieving acute response (odds ratio (OR) 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08 to 2.02), but more effective than paroxetine (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.96) and reboxetine (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.91). Significantly fewer patients allocated to citalopram withdrew from trials due to adverse events compared with patients allocated to tricyclics (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.78) and fewer patients allocated to citalopram reported at least one side effect than reboxetine or venlafaxine (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.97 and OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.88, respectively).”4 Citalopram is a great drug choice for depression due to its low cost, good efficacy, and reduction of the amount of side effects. 4, 8 Trazodone effects are does dependent, depending upon what it is going to be used for.

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