Demographic Factors, Clinical Manifestations and Treatment Outcomes in Patients Poisoned with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Drugs

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are one of the most common drug classes leading to toxicity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, and treatment outcome of patients with SSRI poisoning.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, demographic, toxicological and clinical data were analyzed from the data of patients poisoned with SSRIs in 2019 in the referral poisoning emergency center of Khorshid Hospital affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Out of the 6631 poisoned emergency patients, 66 patients (1%) were hospitalized due to SSRI poisonings. The most common poisoning drug was citalopram (39.4%) followed by sertraline (37.9%). The mean age of patients was 25.9 years and most of them were women (90.9%) with intentional poisoning (78.8%). Nausea and vomiting (43.9%) were the most common clinical symptoms. 20 patients (30.3%) had sinus tachycardia, which was mostly related to sertraline (26.7%). Two patients (3%) had seizures with citalopram and only one patient had serotonin toxicity following citalopram ingestion. The mean length of hospital stay was 0.56±1.54. None of the factors investigated was a good predictor for the duration of hospital stay duration.

In this study, the most common SSRIs causing poisoning were citalopram, followed by sertraline. All patients were discharged with supportive measures and with complete recovery, but in order to evaluate the effects of poisoning of these drugs, there is a need for studies in longer periods of time and with larger sample size.