Rationale: Vortioxetine is a new multimodal antidepressant approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder and recently introduced in Europe. While antidepressant properties of vortioxetine and its tolerability have been demonstrated by preclinical and clinical studies data on the safety of vortioxetine after overdose are still lacking.
Patient concerns: A 50-year-old Caucasian man presenting a severe depressive episode that in a suicide attempt he took vortioxetine at 250 mg.
Diagnoses: Suicide attempt by vortioxetine in a patient affected by Major Depressive Disorder.
Interventions: General evaluations and gastric lavage with 2 L of water plus 50 g of activated charcoal was performed. After 12 hours of clinical stability, the patient was discharged from the emergency department and considering the suicidal ideation he was admitted to the inpatients psychiatric department.
Outcomes: After vortioxetine overdose the patient displayed no clinical signs or symptoms resulting from the exposure suggesting a good safety in overdose.
Lesson: Overdose safety of different antidepressant drugs is a matter of great considering that overdose in individuals affected by Major Depressive Disorder frequently involves prescribed antidepressants. Previous studies showed wide variation in the relative toxicity of different antidepressant drugs with higher toxicity for tricyclic antidepressants, followed by venlafaxine bupropion and mirtazapine and lower for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. By now there is limited clinical trial experience regarding human overdose with vortioxetine and the maximum single dose tested was 75 mg in men associated with increased rates of nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, generalized pruritus, somnolence, and flushing. Even if there is still limited available evidence and further investigation is needed to better understand the potential risk of vortioxetine overdose; from our case, it seems that vortioxetine overdose at 250 mg (12 times the common daily dose) showed no signs or symptoms resulting from the exposure suggesting a good safety in overdose.