Overlooked fatal infectious diseases after long-term antipsychotic use in patients with psychiatric illness

There is mounting evidence that indicates a relation between antipsychotic medication use and sudden cardiac deaths (Ray et al., 2009; Ray et al., 2001). Antipsychotic medications have a high affinity for the cardiac potassium channel which can lead to fatal electrical activity and cause severe arrhythmia such as long QT syndrome (Teodorescu et al., 2013). Additionally, there are increasing reports which suggest a correlation between antipsychotic medications and inflammatory activity (Bedrossian et al., 2016; Tonhajzerova et al., 2015).

Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 8, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Liliang Li, Xing Ye, Ziqin Zhao, Pan Gao, Yan Jiang Source Type: research