Psychiatric medications and sudden cardiac death: putting the risk in perspective

A potential adverse effect of some psychiatric medications is an abnormally prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval and an increased risk of developing Torsade de Pointes (TdP), which is associated with sudden death. Because antidepressant and antipsychotic drug use is increasing and rates of sudden cardiac death are decreasing, the proportion of sudden cardiac death cases that may be attributed to these drugs is likely to be exceedingly small compared to other risk factors. A comprehensive review of the published literature has concluded that there is little evidence that psychotropic drug-associated QTc interval prolongation by itself is sufficient to predict TdP.