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Escitalopram treatment of menopausal hot flashes
Menopause, 10/05/2011
Clinical Article
Freedman RR et al. – Escitalopram at 10 or 20 mg/day is not effective in the treatment of menopausal hot flashes.
Methods- Two studies were performed: 16 women received 10 mg/day and 26 women received 20 mg/day escitalopram for 8 weeks.
- They were randomly assigned in equal numbers to receive active drug or placebo in a double-blind fashion.
- Hot flash frequency was measured with an ambulatory recorder during the first 3 weeks and during the 8th week of the study.
- Rectal temperature threshold for sweating was measured during the 1st and 8th weeks of the study using published methods.
- In the first study, there were no significant effects whatsoever for any measure.
- In the second study, the escitalopram group showed an average decline in hot flash frequency of 14.4%, whereas the placebo group showed an average increase of 6.7% (P < 0.05).
- However, there were no significant effects across time for either group.
- There were no significant effects whatsoever for rectal temperature sweating thresholds.
