title: Cardiovascular risks of atypical antipsychotic drug treatment.
abstract: Atypical antipsychotics are the treatment of choice for patients with schizophrenia. They are generally better tolerated than conventional antipsychotics since most do not cause debilitating extrapyramidal symptoms. They are associated though with an array of cardiovascular adverse events that may affect morbid-mortality of schizophrenic patients. Orthostatic hypotension, electrocardiographic changes and metabolic syndrome (MS) are the main cardiovascular effects of atypical antipsychotics. They contribute to the overall disease burden associated with schizophrenia even though the benefit risk of such treatments still is highly favourable. We aim to review the main cardiovascular side effects of new atypical oral antipsychotics, the pharmacological mechanisms involved, and to which drugs they are particularly attributed.
authors.affiliation: Nice University Medical Center, France. Milou-Daniel.DRICI@unice.fr
authors.forename: Milou-Daniel
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Drici
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Priori
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007024:Hypotension, Orthostatic / Q000139:chemically induced; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000139:chemically induced; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents