escitalopram in preschool-age children diagnosed with ‎obsessive ‎compulsive‏ ‏disorder: a case report‎

when a literature review on pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) is ‎performed, it is observed that there is a dearth of research on preschool period ocd ‎cases. although cognitive behavioral therapy is recommended as the first line of ‎treatment in preschool ocd cases when patients do not show adequate response to ‎cbt, psychopharmacological treatment offers an alternative. the first line used in ‎psychopharmacological treatment is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssri’s). ‎however, no ssri’s (or any other drug group) have been approved by the fda for this ‎age group. moreover, studies related to psychopharmacology in preschool ocd are very ‎limited in the literature, consisting mostly of case reports related to sertraline and ‎fluoxetine. in those studies, it is reported that sertraline and fluoxetine are effective in ‎preschool ocd and generally well-tolerated. in this paper, we discussed the treatment ‎and six-month follow-up period of a 3.5 year-old (42 months) female diagnosed with ‎ocd and for whom escitalopram was used. in the literature, there is a retrospective case ‎series related to this subject consisting of eleven cases, where improvement in symptoms ‎is reported with escitalopram treatment in the five of six cases diagnosed with ocd. as ‎far as we could find in literature, our paper is the second report on this subject. our case ‎also included the youngest patient to receive escitalopram for preschool period ocd ‎and report its benefits.‎