Antipsychotic medication and venous thrombosis

In an autopsy series, 10 out of 27 deaths in which 'idiopathic' pulmonary emboli were discerned as the sole cause of death had occurred in psychiatric patients. To investigate whether antipsychotic medication is a risk factor for venous thrombosis. A description of the 10 psychiatric patie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 2001-07, Vol.179 (1), p.63-66
Main Authors: Thomassen, René, Vandenbroucke, Jan P., Rosendaal, Frits R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Aged
Anesthesia
Antipsychotic Agents - adverse effects
Antipsychotics
Autopsy
Case-Control Studies
Chlorpromazine
Comorbidity
Confidence intervals
Drugs
Embolism
Embolisms
Epidemiology
Female
Gender
Health risk assessment
Humans
Idiopathic
Illnesses
Male
Mental disorders
Middle Aged
Mortality
Psychiatry
Psychosis
Psychotropic drugs
Pulmonary embolisms
Risk Factors
Thrombophilia
Thrombosis
Veins & arteries
Venous thrombosis
Venous Thrombosis - chemically induced
Venous Thrombosis - pathology
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Summary:In an autopsy series, 10 out of 27 deaths in which 'idiopathic' pulmonary emboli were discerned as the sole cause of death had occurred in psychiatric patients. To investigate whether antipsychotic medication is a risk factor for venous thrombosis. A description of the 10 psychiatric patients was obtained from the pulmonary emboli autopsy reports. We carried out a brief historic overview of the literature. We re-analysed data from the Leiden Thrombophilia Study (LETS), a case-control study on patients with venous thrombosis. In the autopsy reports, five out of 10 psychiatric patients with fatal pulmonary embolism had confirmed use of antipsychotic drugs. After the application of chlorpromazine and its analogues a higher incidence of venous thrombosis in psychiatric patients was described in the German literature between 1953 and 1977. In the re-analysis of the LETS case-control study, four patients used antipsychotic drugs versus none in the control group. Recent epidemiological studies of good methodological quality have confirmed these findings. Venous thrombosis appears to be associated with the use of antipsychotic drugs in psychiatric patients.
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.179.1.63