Is there any known risk for interaction between citalopram and buspirone?/nBackground: the question

Fråga: Is there any known risk for interaction between citalopram and buspirone? Background: the question concerns a 65-year-old male patient who has been treated for depression with Cipramil (citalopram) (20 mg x1) for one month. The patient has symptoms of anxiety and is now treated with increasing doses of Buspar (buspirone).

Sammanfattning: There is no documentation yet concerning the possibility of an interaction between buspirone and citalopram, but this is currently being studied.

Svar: A similar question on the risk for interaction between buspirone and paroxetine was recently answered by the Drug Information Center (1). In short, there is no documentation concerning the possibility of interactions between buspirone and any of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors. According to (1), since buspirone has been reported to inhibit the metabolism of haloperidol, the possibility of an interaction between buspirone and paroxetine cannot be excluded. However, this has not been studied. In this matter, it should also be considered that the cytochrome P4502D6 is only of minor importance for the metabolism of citalopram (2).

There is an ongoing placebo-controlled study (3,4), involving 120 depressed patients treated with citalopram or paroxetine with and without buspirone. However, the results of this study have not yet been evaluated.