The Journal of the American Medical Association: Use of antipsychotic drugs is associated with an increased risk of VA and/or SCD. Careful evaluations of the risks and benefits of antipsychotic treatment are highly recommended.
The New England Journal of Medicine Conclusion: Current users of both typical and atypical antipsychotics had a similar, dose-related increased risk of sudden cardiac death.
The British Journal of Psychiatry: The mechanism by which antipsychotic drugs may cause sudden death is by inducing cardiac arrhythmias, because they are known to disturb normal cardiac electrophysiology, resulting in electro-cardiogram (ECG) changes (Arita & Surawicz, 1973)
The British Medical Journal: The study examined administrative records (including all prescriptions) from three regions in the United States, comparing the incidence of cardiac arrest and ventricular arrhythmias and all cause mortality in patients with schizophrenia treated with an antipsychotic with that in two other cohorts, one with patients of glaucoma and one with patients of psoriasis. Both these conditions require long term medication, and neither is associated with cardiac risks. Of the patients with schizophrenia about 41 000 had received haloperidol, 24 000 thioridazine, 22 000
