Do your patients suffer from excessive yawning?

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Medicine

Background:

• Yawning is a complex physiological phenomenon associated with various medications, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
• Escitalopram, a commonly prescribed SSRI for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, has been anecdotally linked to yawning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report on two cases of excessive yawning in patients undergoing long-term escitalopram therapy.
• To investigate the effect of dosage reduction on escitalopram-induced yawning.

Main Methods:

• A clinical case series describing two patients experiencing excessive yawning.
• Observation of yawning frequency following escitalopram dosage adjustment.

Main Results:

• Two female patients developed significant daytime yawning while on stable, long-term escitalopram treatment.
• Reducing the escitalopram dosage led to the disappearance of excessive yawning within hours.
• The patients' underlying psychiatric conditions (depression) did not relapse after dosage reduction.

Conclusions:

• Excessive yawning can be a side effect of escitalopram, even with stable dosing.
• Dosage reduction, rather than complete discontinuation, may effectively manage SSRI-induced yawning.
• This suggests a dose-dependent relationship between escitalopram and yawning.