Effect of antipsychotics on stroke risk remains unproved

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1673

Published 16 September 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1673
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1673

Letters

Antipsychotics and stroke risk

Effect of antipsychotics on stroke risk remains unproved

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The paper by Douglas and Smeeth,¹ does not, as is widely claimed,show that both typical and atypical antipsychotics increasethe risk of stroke, especially in patients with dementia.

They find that in patients who have had a stroke and who wereprescribed antipsychotics by their general practitioners thestroke is more likely to occur during the time antipsychoticsare prescribed than before or after. The method used is wideopen to biases of different sorts.²

The authors do not consider the possibility that there may bequite direct relations between the clinical situation whichleads to the initiation or termination of the prescription ofantipsychotics and the stroke. For example, a patient with ongoingdeterioration of functioning may have behavioural disturbanceand be prescribed an antipsychotic and may then go on to developwhat is recognised as a full blown stroke. Likewise, some patientstaking antipsychotics will have a . . . [Full text of this article]

David Curtis, honorary professor of psychiatry¹

¹ Royal London Hospital, East London (NHS) Foundation Trust, London E1 1BB

david.curtis@qmul.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Exposure to antipsychotics and risk of stroke: self controlled case series study: Ian J Douglas and Liam Smeeth
BMJ 2008 337: a1227. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]