Well-known adverse effects of amisulpride include nausea, insomnia or tiredness, gastrointestinal,
extrapyramidal and endocrine symptoms. Cardiac disorders, however, appear to be an
extremely rare complication of the drug. Only a few case reports on this complication
have been published so far, which deal with QT prolongation, hypotension, hypertension
and palpitations. Bradycardia has not yet been mentioned. Here, we will report on
a case of asymptomatic bradycardia that developed subsequent to therapeutic doses
of amisulpride in a 25-year-old male patient with chronic paranoid-hallucinatory schizophrenia.
The patient had been rehospitalized for an acute exacerbation of the psychosis. When
the patient failed to respond at the beginning of hospitalization, the treatment was
changed from clozapine to amisulpride. After a complete switchover to amisulpride,
the patient's ECG showed sinus bradycardia and QT prolongation. When the daily dose
of amisulpride was reduced from 800 mg/d to 600 mg/d, the patient's ECG quickly normalized
(including blood pressure and pulse rate) within a few days. The patient did not report
any cardiovascular-related complaints. Since the cardiovascular-specific diagnostics
did not yield any indicative results, bradycardia may be a rare complication of amisulpride
treatment.
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Francisco Pedrosa GilM.D.
Department of Psychiatry
Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry
Kraepelinstraße 2 - 10
80804 Munich
Germany
Telefon: + 49-89-30622-524
Fax: + 49-89-30622-461
eMail: pedrosa@mpigsykl.mpg.de
