High-Dose Citalopram and Escitalopram and the Risk of Out-of-Hospital Death.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Studies demonstrating that higher doses of citalopram (> 40 mg) and escitalopram (> 20 mg) prolong the corrected QT interval prompted regulatory agency warnings, which are controversial, given the absence of confirmatory clinical outcome studies. We compared the risk of potential arrhythmia-related deaths for high doses of these selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to that for equivalent doses of fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline.

Methods

The Tennessee Medicaid retrospective cohort study included 54,220 persons 30-74 years of age without cancer or other life-threatening illness who were prescribed high-dose SSRIs from 1998 through 2011. The mean age was 47 years, and 76% were female. Demographic characteristics and comorbidity for individual SSRIs w

SUBMITTER: Ray WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5916769 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature