Severe Toxicity of Citalopram Hydrobromide in Three Mouse Models of Seizures

SUMMARY. Citalopram hydrobromide (CH) is known to have many side effects, but its risks in patients with epilepsy has not been evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks of CH treatment in epilepsy using three different animal models of seizures. Seizures were induced in mice by maximal elec-troshock, pentylenetetrazol and isoniazid. The effect of a pretreatment with CH one hour before the seizure test was tested to investigate the toxicity and anticonvulsant activity of CH. We found that, al-though CH is an effective drug in the treatment of depression, it had harmful toxic effects in the tested seizure models. These findings suggest that CH should be used with care in epileptic patients with depres-sion