Do your patients suffer from excessive yawning?
OBJECTIVE
Yawning has been described in relation to drugs such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, levodopa, dopamine agonists, MAO B inhibitor, morphine, methadone, buprenorphine, dextromethorphan, benzodiazepine, lidocaine, and flecaine. This is a report of two patients, on long-term escitalopram therapy (more than 8 weeks) with stable dosing, who presented excessive yawning. Escitalopram is widely used in major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.


METHODS
A clinical description of two cases.


RESULTS
Two females (62 and 59 years old, respectively) developed excessive daytime yawning. It was not associated with sedation or a feeling of needing sleep. The dosage was reduced and yawning disappeared some hours later. The patients' depression did not recur.


CONCLUSIONS
Yawning has been described in relation to different selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and remitted following their discontinuation; it is interesting that the reported yawning in these two cases disappeared with the reduction of dosage, rather than the interruption of treatment.
Gutiérrez-Alvarez
A M
AM
Faculty of Medicine, Research Office, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. amgutier@urosario.edu.co
D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015283:Citalopram / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015000:Yawning / Q000187:drug effects*
D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D015283:Citalopram; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors