Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffTaking more than one serotonin-related medication may increase your risk of serotonin syndrome. This can be especially true if you're taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor or a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Talk to your doctor about possible risks. Don't stop taking any such medications on your own. If your doctor prescribes a new medication, make sure he or she knows about all the other medications you're taking — especially if you receive prescriptions from more than one doctor.
If you and your doctor decide the benefits of combining certain serotonin-level-affecting drugs outweigh the risks, be alert to the possibility of serotonin syndrome.
- Moore DP. Serotonin syndrome. In: Moore DP. Moore & Jefferson: Handbook of Medical Psychiatry. 2nd ed. Philadelphia Pa.: Mosby; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/113440701-3/0/1243/148.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02911-6..50148-2_1373. Accessed Dec. 10, 2008.
- Bilden EF, et al. Antidepressants. In: Marx JA: Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 6th ed. Philadelphia Pa.: Elsevier; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/113410207-5/0/1365/463.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02845-4..50154-2--cesec45_7826. Accessed Dec. 10, 2008.
- Boyer EW, et al. Serotonin syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;352:1112.
- Combined use of 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor agonists (triptans), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or selective serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) may result in life-threatening serotonin syndrome. US Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Cder/Drug/advisory/SSRI_SS200607.htm. Accessed Dec. 10, 2008.
- Zeping H, et al. Herb-drug interactions. Drugs. 2005;65:1239.
- Chyka PA, et al. Dextromethorphan poisoning: An evidence-based consensus guideline for out-of-hospital management. Clinical Toxicology. 2007;45:662.
- Argwal P. Serotonin syndrome. In: Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/113440701-3/0/1701/541.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50022-7--subchapter15_11410. Accessed Dec. 10, 2008
