Clozapin may cause serious cardiovascular
side effects
In their newsreport on side effects, the
Swedish Medical Products agency reports that Clozapin - which is
already previously known to cause blood damage like agranulocytosis
- also may result in cardiovascular side effects such as myocardia
and cardiomyopathy. In an Australian study where 8000 patients were
examined, the total frequency of these side effects was 0.29%, one
third (0.19%) of which were cases of myocardia. All myocardia cases
occured within three weeks after the treatment was inititated, and
0.33% of these were fatal (3 cases of sudden death and 2 cases of
heart failure). In some of the myocardia cases, eusinophilia could
also be observed.
The risk for this type of side effects in
cases of treatment with Clozapin are now suspected to far greater,
since the results in the Australian study are only based on reported
cases.
Source:
Information från Swedish Medical Products Agency. Issue 4.
Juli. 2000.
Read more about the
Swedish Medical Products Agency
(July 29, 2000)
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