Treatment of pathological crying with citalopram

Pathological laughing and/or crying may occur as a concomitant symptom of v arious diseases of the central nervous system. No known anatomical. basis f or any of these disorders exists at present. However, references to a distu rbance in central serotoninergic neurotransmission have become frequent in the literature, implicating this as an important etiological factor. In the present communication three cases of successful treatment of pathological crying using the SSRI citalopram are reported. Besides the response of path ological crying in cerebral ischemia to SSRIs, which has already been descr ibed in earlier publications, this is the first report on the successful ad ministration of citalopram for treating pathological crying in Parkinson's disease. Onset of response was very rapid in all cases.