Antipsychotics have suffered a beleaguered course of late: literature showing little efficacy advantage of newer vs older agents, concerns about increased mortality associated with their use, etc. A recent report suggests that antipsychotic treatment is also associated with a clinically meaningful increase in risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), comprised of deep vein thrombosis plus pulmonary embolism.
Wu et al performed a case-control study of enrollees in the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan to compare cases of confirmed VTE (n = 2162) with age-matched controls without VTE (n = 12,966). Initial analysis looked simply at the relative risk of antipsychotic use in persons with VTE vs controls. Second-step analysis adjusted for confounders.
Overall, the adjusted odds ratio for VTE in current antipsychotic users was 1.52 (i.e., current users were 52% more likely to experience VTE than controls); the odds ratio was substantially worse (3.26: a more than 3-fold increase in risk) for new users. These concerning results were attained even after correction for confounding factors such as utilization of thrombogenic medications (e.g., oral contraceptives) and medical comorbidities associated with increased VTE risk (e.g., congestive heart failure). Analysis of different classes of antipsychotics did not find any particular distinction among them. The mechanism by which antipsychotics might increase VTE risk is uncertain, although the authors posit that antipsychotic-induced sedation could lead to less physical activity with subsequent venous stasis. In any case, these data suggest vigilance for VTE in persons prescribed antipsychotics, especially in the early months of use.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content