Pediatric ingestion of vilazodone compared to other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications.

BACKGROUND

Unintentional ingestion of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications is common amongst children <6 years of age. Current evidence-based management guidelines are based on a low incidence of significant medical outcomes in these children.

OBJECTIVE

To describe and compare outcomes of pediatric exposures to vilazodone with other SSRIs.

METHODS

A retrospective observational case series analysis of both single and polysubstance SSRI exposures amongst children <6 years old reported to the National Poison Data System (NPDS).

RESULTS

11,384 SSRI exposures in children <6 years of age reported to NPDS between January 2012 and June 2016 were assessed. Vilazodone only accounted for 5.9% of all exposures, but resulted in the highest proportion of health care facility admission compared to other SSRIs, both in single substance (165 of 531 (31.1%); OR 9.0 [7.3-11.2]) and polysubstance (57 of 107 (53.3%); OR 4.1 [2.7-6.2]) exposures. Children exposed to vilazodone also have higher odds of experiencing a major or moderate outcome in single (134 of 531 (25.2%); OR 20.5 [15.5-27.1]) and polysubstance (37 of 107 (35.6%); OR 5.9 [3.7-9.0]) exposures compared to other SSRIs. Several severe clinical outcomes, such as seizure and coma, were more common among the vilazodone exposures.

CONCLUSIONS

Exposure to vilazodone in this age group results in an increased rate of hospitalization as well as more severe clinical effects as compared to other SSRIs. Current evidence-based SSRI exposure management guidelines may not be appropriate for the management of vilazodone ingestion in this age group.