Sertraline-induced Behavioral Activation During the Treatment of an Adolescent with Major Depression

Symptoms of behavioral activation in children and adolescents have been reported as possible adverse effects of treatment with fluoxetine and sertraline. A 15-year-old with a single major depressive episode, dissociative periods, and anxious hyperventilation attacks was started on sertraline 50 mg (1 mg/kg) daily and, within 4 days, raised to 100 mg daily. All major symptoms resolved by 4 weeks with no apparent side effects or adverse behavioral changes. Ratings of Global Assessment of Functioning and Clinical Global Impression Severity of Illness ratings reflected marked clinical improvement. The adolescent remained euthymic for 6 months but then experienced a return of some depressive symptoms. Within 3 days of raising the dose to 150 mg daily, the patient began to exhibit difficulty in falling asleep, hypermotoric behavior, and hypertalkativeness (in association with tremor and blurred vision). This episode was not of sufficient duration and did not fulfill a sufficient number of DSM-IV criteria to qualify as hypomania. The symptoms of behavioral activation lasted for 3 days and disappeared when sertraline was discontinued, but depressive and hyperventilation symptoms returned quickly. Reinstatement of 100 mg produced enduring recovery without the adverse effects. This case appears to suggest that rapid dose elevation may not be as important as dose quantity in eliciting adverse behavioral effects from sertraline. Judging from the few cases now in the medical literature, it appears that sertraline-induced behavioral activation may emerge at doses that vary considerably among individual youths (25-200 mg daily). In short, this drug-induced behavioral activation appears to be dose-dependent, but dose threshold varies widely among patients.