The effect of sertraline on routine blood chemistry values

Sertraline is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibit or (SSRI) class. Although SSRIs are believed to have a milder side effect p rofile than the tricyclic antidepressants, there are some potentially serio us side effects. These include hyponatremia, which has been seen with each of the SSRIs. We reviewed the charts of 246 patients treated with sertralin e at a veterans' hospital. We obtained values for each patient's basic chem istry panel (sodium, potassium, chloride, glucose, carbon dioxide, blood ur ea nitrogen, and creatinine) before and after institution of sertraline the rapy. We studied the patients' ages and sertraline doses to see if there wa s a relationship between any laboratory value changes and these variables. We found no relationship between maximum sertraline dose, age, and changes in routine blood chemistry results with the exception of a small (0.5%) con tribution of maximum sertraline dose to variance in serum creatinine levels . Sertraline therapy was not noted to cause any significant changes in seru m sodium levels.