Delirium associated with sertraline, a case report

Abstract

Introduction

Delirium is a clinical entity consisting of acute loss of consciousness, with attention deficit and fluctuating evolution. Antidepressive medication can cause these symptoms or worsen them.

Case report

We report the case of a 84-year-old blind female who was diagnosed of delirium in relation to intoxication with sertraline. The patient was admitted into a short-stay psychiatric unit for three days. She presented behavioural disturbances consisting in auto and heteroaggressive behaviour, altered consciousness and visual hallucinations (rocks, turtles). When dosage of sertraline was doubled from 50 mg/day to 100 mg/day visual hallucinations started. There were not other medical causes found, so sertraline was suspended, achieving clinical improvement.

Discussion

This case report shows how a patient with antidepressive treatment can display delirium. The three main causes of delirium that are infections, side effects and methabolic syndrome.

Conclusions

In the case of treating a patient with delirium, the presence of previous illness has to be investigated. It is indispensable to describe the presence of previous illness, medication and recent changes of the dosages in the medical history in a patient with Sertraline.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.