Citalopram: A Study on its Mechanism of Action, Efficacy, and Side Effects

Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Physiological psychology
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PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
The pharmacological drug that has been chosen is Citalopram, which is used to treat
depression. The academic resource used for this drug is “Cortisol Supplement Combined with
Psychotherapy and Citalopram Improves Depression Outcomes in Patients with
Hypocortisolism after Traumatic Brain Injury” by Luo et al. (2015). The second academic
resource chosen for the paper had been “Citalopram, Methylphenidate, or Their Combination
in Geriatric Depression: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial” by
Lavretsky et al. (2015). And the website resource chosen is Medlineplus.gov and Wikipedia.
The academic resource mentioned that the drug is used to treat depression but exact
mechanism of action was not mentioned. The website mentioned it is a drug used as a SSRI
antidepressant that treats depression symptoms by increasing the concentration of serotonin
in the blood. The trial was used only the in paper, duration of trial was found to be 3 weeks.
The dosage was mentioned for the drug in both of the academic sources chosen, 30 mg and
40 mg respectively, although n o mentioning of the medical norms and standards is clear in
any of the academic resources.
The next question can also be properly answered by the academic resource, although
one of the articles had a control group and the other did not have a control design. The article
by Lavretsky et al. (2015) had mentioned that it is a placebo trial with a control group,
although the article by Luo et al. (2015) had no control group. Although, it has to be
mentioned that measures taken by the researchers to ensure the groups being compared were
equivalent except for variations in the dosage is not highlighted by the authors in the article
by Lavretsky et al. (2015). Alternative explanations were not present in any of the articles
which is a considerable limitation of the study. Both articles mentioned the participants and
their characteristics. For the article by Luo et al. (2015), a total of 68 patients with depression
following closed traumatic brain injury were recruited for this study. The 68 subjects
consisted of 45 males and 23 females aged between 18 to 70 years old. For the article by