Antipsicóticos e risco de AVC

Study indicates antipsychotic medications may increase stroke risk.The BBC (8/28) reported that "all forms of antipsychotics" may increase the risk of stroke, according to a study published online in the Aug. 29 issue of the BMJ. Ian Douglas, M.D., of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the U.K., and colleagues, "identified 6,700 patients from a" general-practitioner "database, all with an average age of 80, and concluded that there was more than a tripling of risk for dementia patients taking any sort of anti-psychotic drug." But, "patients without dementia taking any sort of antipsychotic" also "had a 40 percent increase in risk." Therefore, the authors "repeated the recommendation that patients with dementia should not be prescribed these drugs." "The risk for stroke was slightly higher for people taking the newer atypical antipsychotics, compared with people taking the older typical antipsychotics," HealthDay (8/28, Reinberg) added. "Atypical antipsychotics include drugs such as Abilify (aripiprazole), Clozaril (clozapine), and Zyprexa (olanzapine). Typical antipsychotics include Thorazine (chlorpromazine), Haldol (haloperidol), and Clopixol (zuclopenthixol)." The authors, however, did not examine "the potential mechanisms associated with antipsychotics that cause stroke, or why the risk appears higher with atypical antipsychotics."