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A citalopram or trade name lexapro is an ssri therapeutic class antidepressant the way this works you know like we just said it’s ssri that means selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors okay so what really happens here is in our neurological system we have neurons we have axons and between our neurons we have things called neurotransmitters and these neurotransmitters
Play a role in our neurological processes they play a role in our mood they play a role in in muscular movement and everything and what we have here is we have little neurotransmitters that travel between one axon and another axon throughout our nervous system and there’s a little space between axons called a synapse and what will happen is the neurotransmitter
Will travel from one go between the little synapse go into the other one and continue to flow throughout the system serotonin is one of our neurotransmitters that plays a role in mood and behavior okay so it’s a really important neurotransmitter to that affects our mood so what what these ssris do so between these synapse we actually have things that will pull
These neurotransmitters back into the system and and get them you know back into the neurons but what these ssris do is they actually prevent the serotonin from going back into the previous axon and leave that more of it in the synapse available as so by doing this we increase the amount of serotonin available so while we’re really doing is preventing it from
Being taken back and by thereby we increase the amount available so because of this it really plays a role in major depressive disorder anxiety disorder ptsd in social phobia some of the nursing considerations to keep in mind are that as contraindicated with mao iu’s we really want to leave about two weeks between stopping and maoi and starting lexapro it can
Also unfortunately lead to suicidal thoughts and saam needed rosiness so it’s really important to monitor your patients who are taking antidepressants because these antidepressants can actually lead to suicidal ideation so we really want to very directly ask our patients have you had any thoughts of harming yourself and we really want to make sure we’re being very
Direct with that question we don’t want to beat around the bush with this question we need to get a direct question and a direct answer about if our patient is having suicidal thoughts another severe side effect of these can cause is that they can lead to cue prolongation what this means is it can actually do very severe ventricular arrhythmias and so we really want
To monitor the patient monitor their ekg and see if there’s been any ekg changes if the qt interval is is being elongated and how long it’s getting it’s really important to let your patient know too that it can take four to six weeks for this medication to actually take effect so you really want to let your patient know you know you’re not going to notice right
Away a complete change in your mood or your depression kind of subsiding a little bit but it’s going to take a month maybe more for this to actually even start working so you really want to assess your patients mood assess their previous thoughts assess their suicidal ideation and really help your patient and understand how this medication works and what they can
Kind of expect for the medication this has been another episode of the med master podcast by n r s ng comm to get our free cheat sheet cover than fifty most commonly prescribed medications head over to nrs ng comm slash fifty meds that’s in our s ng comm slash fifty meds thank you so much for joining me today and thank you for being part of the nrs ng family we’re
Here to help you succeed in nursing school and in life so start your journey today over at nrs ng comm slash fifty meds we’re glad to have you aboard you know what time it is now it’s time to go out and be your best self today happy nursing yell you
Transcribed from video
Escitalopram Nursing Considerations, Side Effects, and Mechanism of Action Pharmacology for Nurses By NURSINGcom
