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Case Reports
. 2017 Dec 18:7:518.
doi: 10.7916/D8XK999F. eCollection 2017.

Sertraline-induced Hemichorea

Emilia M Gatto  1 , Victoria Aldinio  1 , Virginia Parisi  1 , Gabriel Persi  1 , Gustavo Da Prat  1 , Maria Bres Bullrich  1 , Pilar Sanchez  1 , Galeno Rojas  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Sertraline-induced Hemichorea

Emilia M Gatto et al. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y). .

Abstract

Background: Hemichorea-hemiballism is a syndrome secondary to different etiologies. Drug-induced hemichorea is a rare syndrome related to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. To the best of our knowledge, no previous cases of hemichorea associated with sertraline have been reported.

Case report: A 65-year-old female noticed hemichorea 1 week after initiation of sertraline. After extensive investigations, other causes of hemichorea were excluded. Hemichorea remitted after sertraline withdrawal.

Discussion: In our patient, temporal association and the negative clinical assessment supported a diagnosis of likely drug-induced involuntary movement. We hypothesized that enhanced serotonergic transmission in the ventral tegmental area or nigrostriatum may be involved in sertraline-induced hemichorea.

Keywords: Hemichorea; chorea; hemichorea; selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors; sertraline.

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Conflict of interest statement

Funding: None. Conflicts of Interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. Ethics Statement: All patients that appear on video have provided written informed consent; authorization for the videotaping and for publication of the videotape was provided.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. 1.5 Tesla Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging. (A) T1-weighted sequences. (B) T2-weighted sequences. (C) Fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR)-weighted sequences.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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