Suicide by overdosing on their own medications is a common risk in patients with psychiatric disorders. This is a reason why less toxic antidepressants should be prescribed to individuals with a history of suicide attempts. The following is case report were an individual abused the drug Clomipramine. Clomipramine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) but it is also a tricyclic compound that has been used for the pharmacological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and has been replaced by other safer selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
A 41-year-old female was admitted to the emergency room after taking 20 pills of 75mg clomipramine slow release tablets.She had a history of OCD for the last 11 years. When admitted to the hospital, the initial physical examination revealed vomiting and palpilation only. Vital signs were 140/85 mmHg, and 107 heart rate per minute. ECG showed sinus tachycardia and she experienced tonic-clonic seizures two hours after admission. She became fully oriented on day 2.
Therfore it is suggested that the use of tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) should be avoided in patients with suicidal tendency.
(Muhammet Gozdemir, Mehmet Erkan Ozcan, 2009,Bulletin of Clinical Psychopharmacology,Vol:19,www.psikofarmakoloji.org )
How often if ever do you read the labels of your medications whether it’s an over-the-counter drug or a prescription drug? If you don’t read the labels don’t feel alone most people just read the dosage on the bottles and some don’t even do that the doctor might say take one pill once a day and that’s what they do regardless of what the bottle says. The problem is more and more people are taking medications for some reason or another, and not even looking at what the side effects are much less what can happen if you mix them. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Americans; there are many risk factors that can put a person at risk for suicide. Among the many risk factors the number one is depression and mental illness. Interestingly a lot of the victims of suicide are already being medically treated.
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