Citalopram treatment of traumatic brain damage in a 6-year-old boy.

Traumatic brain damage may cause acute emotional symptoms such as uncontrolled crying, apathy, and sleep problems. Rehabilitation may be less effective in patients afflicted by these symptoms. Citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), has a documented immediate and dramatic effect on pathological crying in stroke patients. The present case history of a 6-year-old boy with a traumatic right-sided hemorrhage in the basal ganglia indicates that early SSRI treatment has a dramatic effect on pathological crying and in addition may have a concomitant beneficial effect on motor paresis, sleep disturbance, and neurobehavioral problems.