BALTIMORE -- For individuals who have high levels of hostility, treatment with citalopram not only reduces hostility but improves the cardiovascular risk factors that make up metabolic syndrome, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

The findings suggest a role for central serotonergic function in the association of hostility with cardiovascular risk factors, said Thomas W. Kamarck, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"We concluded that it's plausible that individual difference in serotonergic function may in part drive the association between hostility and metabolic risk factors observed ...