{"id":915711,"date":"2026-11-13T07:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915711\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:42:12","slug":"woman-develops-bizarre-symptoms-on-ssri-with-six-episodes-every-15-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915711\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman develops bizarre symptoms on SSRI \u2014 with six episodes every 15 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

About one in six adults are on an antidepressant<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and over half of them<\/a> are on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).<\/p>\n

Because they\u2019ve been around for almost four decades, we know a lot about their benefits, risks and side effects. <\/p>\n

But authors of a new case study say that one side effect in particular is under-reported, and could be mistaken for an urgent medical emergency or neurological condition.<\/p>\n

\"AA new case study tells the story of a mom who went on antidepressants and delveoped a strange side effect. Marco \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

They\u2019re sharing<\/a> the strange story of a 44-year-old single mother of five from rural Rwanda who began taking escitalopram, aka Lexapro \u2014\u00a0and started yawning constantly.<\/p>\n

She was yawning six times every 15 minutes, all day long.<\/p>\n

The woman was referred to a psychiatric evaluation in May 2026 after an emotional crisis that coincided with the anniversary of the 1994 genocide<\/a> in the country, authors wrote.<\/p>\n

She reported five months of worsening depression, including persistent low mood, loss of interest and pleasure in things she once enjoyed, reduced appetite, fatigue, insomnia, and functioning at work.<\/p>\n

Doctors determined she was having a severe depressive episode and post-traumatic stress disorder. They started her on 10 mg of Lexapro, a standard starting dose, with supportive psychotherapy.<\/p>\n

She noticed something was off within days \u2014 she had six yawning \u201cepisodes\u201d every 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Strangely, she said she wasn\u2019t sleepy or dizzy. She also wasn\u2019t confused, weak or experiencing other neurological symptoms.<\/p>\n

While she yawned, the medicine was at work. Authors noted her sleep and mood improved.<\/p>\n

\"CloseOne in six American adults are on antidepressants. fizkes \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Doctors suspected the Lexapro was causing it, but systematically ruled out other possibilities. Ultimately, they decided to keep using the SSRI because it was working and the side effect, though strange, was bearable.<\/p>\n

After two weeks, the yawning decreased \u201csubstantially\u201d and her depression continued to improve.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/p>\n

We yawn to wake up our brains<\/a> and cool them down, and do it up to 20 times a day. But when people do it too much \u2014 more than three times over 15 minutes, several times a day \u2014 it can spell trouble.<\/p>\n

It could be a sign of sleep issues or conditions like<\/a> narcolepsy, or something serious and neurological, like ALS, epilepsy or head trauma. Some causes<\/a> require urgent care, like stroke or heart attack.<\/p>\n

Yawning is a well-known side effect of Lexapro<\/a> and a number of other SSRIs, including fluoxetine<\/a> (Prozac). But researchers are really not sure why it happens.<\/p>\n

One theory<\/a> is that increased serotonin from the SSRIs is reducing dopamine, which is responsible for triggering yawning<\/a>. The serotonin might also be affecting the frontal lobe, which is responsible for arousal and alertness.<\/p>\n

Authors of the case study say the importance of this woman\u2019s story is that it shows doctors don\u2019t necessarily need to take patients off or lower the dose of their SSRIs, as was done in other case studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the symptom is tolerable and the antidepressant is effective, reassurance and monitoring may allow treatment to continue, avoiding unnecessary investigations and premature discontinuation,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About one in six adults are on an antidepressant \u2014\u00a0and over half of them are on selective serotonin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2754,97,1494,686,259,1337,1728,2595],"class_list":["post-915711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-depression","tag-health","tag-medical-disorders","tag-medicine","tag-mental-health","tag-neuroscience","tag-research","tag-weird-but-true"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}