Effect of Citalopram and Aspirin on Hot Flashes and Quality of Life in Premenopausal Women with Breast Cancer: A Randomized Double-blind Clinical Trial

Introduction: Over 70% of Iranian breast cancer patients are reported to have experienced an earlier menopause after chemotherapy. Due to the high and prevalent appearance of amenorrhea, this study focused on the efficacy of citalopram plus aspirin, compared to citalopram plus a placebo on cancerous women with chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea symptoms in premenopausal stages. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 32 participants were randomly allocated to treatment (receiving citalopram and aspirin), and 28 to control (receiving citalopram and placebo) groups. Participants were selected from patients referring to Breast Cancer Research Center of ACECR, and Seyyed-o-Shohada Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. To assess their functional, physical, emotional and socio-familial well-being, as well as their hot flashes, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General questionnaires were used, while the effect of treatment was measured using paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: The means of participants′ ages were 45.03 ± 5.1 and 44.7 ± 5.3 in treatment and control groups, respectively. Hot flashes decreased in both groups to a statistically significant degree, while no significant differences were observed in functional and sociofamilial well-being of participants before and after the treatment. The treatment group also displayed significantly improved emotional and physical well-being statuses after the treatment. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer experience disturbing symptoms such as hot flashes, and lower emotional and physical well-being, which can largely be treated with citalopram and aspirin. Relevant specialists and physicians could thus prescribe this drug regimen to alleviate these major symptoms.