People taking anti-psychotic drugs and antidepressant drugs have a much higher risk of dying during an acute coronary event of a fatal arrhythmia than the rest of the population, according to a Finnish study published in the European Heart Journal.
The study showed that the combined use of both antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs was associated with an even greater risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) during a coronary event. “We’ve known for some time that mental disorders increase the risk of cardiovascular mortality, but it hasn’t been clearly established if psychiatric disorders predispose to the occurrence of cardiovascular events or if they increase the patient’s vulnerability to suffer fatal outcomes during the event. This study shows that it is the increased vulnerability during the event that is the determining factor,” said Heikki Huikuri, the study’s principal investigator from the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu. “It points to an urgent need to improve screening for cardiovascular risk factors in psychiatric patients.”
