Transient global amnesia after taking sibutramine: a case report.
BACKGROUND
Sibutramine (Meridia in the United States, Reductil in Europe) is approved for weight reduction and weight maintenance. Although amnesia and seizure is listed as a reported adverse event of sibutramine in the US product information, our literature search in the PubMed website database found no published reports of theses adverse events.


METHODS
We report a 39-year-old healthy woman who had an episode of sudden memory loss lasting for several hours after taking sibutramine for 4 days. Cranial computed tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetic resonance angiography of the head all showed normal results. Electroencephalogram showed spike and wave complexes with phase reversal in the left mesial temporal area. Transient global amnesia was suspected clinically and transient epileptic amnesia provoked by sibutramine was also proposed. Three months after this episode, the follow-up electroencephalogram was normal. This patient did not take any anticonvulsant, and there were no more episodes of memory impairment.


CONCLUSIONS
This case serves to emphasize that sibutramine which was used for weight reduction might induce transient global amnesia or provoke transient epileptic amnesia. Physicians should be careful to monitor for this adverse effect when sibutramine is prescribed.
Fu
Pin-Kuei
PK
Division of Neurology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Hsu
Hung-Yi
HY
Wang
Pao-Yu
PY
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001067:Appetite Depressants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003503:Cyclobutanes / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D001067:Appetite Depressants; D003503:Cyclobutanes; C058254:sibutramine