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Some SSRI’s have a fewer side effects profile compared to the other group of antidepressant drugs. The main side effects of these drugs are known as agitation, sleep disturbances, tremor, serotonin syndrome, galactorrhea, sexual dysfunction, headache, bruxism, arthralgia, lymphadenopathy, antidiuretic syndrome, agranulocytosis and hypoglycemia. In this article, two oligomenorrhea cases associated with the use of escitalopram will be discussed.
Case 1: A 38-years-old female patient applied to our out-patient clinic with signs of anxiety. With a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, she was given treatment with escitalopram 10 mg/per-day. After the first month of treatment, the patient’s alleviation of complaints were inspected at the examination. Oligomenorrhea was diagnosed in the second month of the treatment. No pathology was detected in the physical and biochemical tests.
Case 2: A 30-years-old female patient applied to the neurology policlinic with complaints of headache. Thus, she was given treatment with escitalopram 10 mg/per-day. Because of the persistence of her complaints, she was rerouted to consultation. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with comorbid “depressive disorder”. For that reason the treatment dosage was increased to 20 mg/per-day. In one month period, although the clinical symptoms were lessened, a development of oligomenorrhea was observed. Further tests yielded no findings of organic origin. It’s predominantly known that antidepressants which include SSRIs -especially escitalopram- might bring about hyperprolactinemia. On the other hand hyperprolactinemia impedes uterine bleeding irregularities stemmed from menstrual cramps. In this case, the selection of SSRIs should be determined with great care among women patients in particular.