Antipsychotic drugs cardiovascular studies

During 2004 a number of clinical trials were reported involving acute and maintenance studies of lithium, mostly either comparing new atypical antipsychotic drugs with lithium in bipolar disorder or in combined treatment studies. Of the relatively few studies of the adverse effects of lithium, most clustered in the areas of cardiovascular effects and issues regarding lithium toxicity. 

Metabolic and cardiovascular adverse events were further studied by the same authors in the same sample of children and adolescents [7 ]. Compared with the controls, the treated cohort had a higher prevalence of obesity (OR = 2.1), type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR = 3.2), cardiovascular conditions (OR = 2.7), and orthostatic hypotension (OR = 1.6). In the treated cohort, those who had been exposed to multiple antipsychotic drugs had a significantly higher risk of incident obesity/weight gain (OR = 2.3), type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR = 2.4), and dyslipidemia (OR = 5.3). Incident cardiovascular events were more likely with the use of conventional antipsychotic drugs (OR = 4.3) and mood stabilizers (OR = 1.3). Incident orthostatic hypotension h os more prevalent in those co-prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (OR = 1.8) and mood stabilizers (OR = 1.3). 

People with schizophrenia have substantially increased rates of mortality than the general population because of chronic illness, particularly cardiovascular disease [8 ]. In an 11-year follow-up study of mortality in patients with schizophrenia (n = 66 881), the gap in life expectancy between patients with schizophrenia and the general population in Finland did not widen between 1996 (25 years) and 2006 (23 years) [9, 10/]. During that time, the proportion of use of second-generation antipsychotic drugs rose from 13% to 64%. Compared with current use of perphenazine, the highest risk of overall mortality was recorded for... 

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