Comparative Resuscitative Methods for Venlafaxine Toxicity in a Swine Model

Venlafaxine overdose can lead to cardiovascular collapse that is difficult to resuscitate with traditional Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support protocols. Evidence has suggested that lipid emulsion infusion therapy has been successful in the treatment of antidepressant overdose. No studies have determined the optimal combination of lipid/advanced cardiovascular life support therapy for treatment.

This study was a prospective, experimental, between subjects design with a swine model investigating the effectiveness of drug combinations administered with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) postvenlafexine overdose. Subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of eight groups containing seven subjects. The groups tested were CPR only and CPR with epinephrine alone; vasopressin alone; lipid alone; epinephrine and vasopressin; epinephrine and lipid; vasopressin and lipid; and epinephrine, vasopressin, and lipid. The outcomes of interest were survival odds and time to return of spontaneous circulation.

Results on these swine models indicate that the use of vasopressin coupled with lipids for venlafaxine overdose resulted in a higher survival rate when compared to the control group (p = 0.023). Groups receiving vasopressin experienced statistically faster times to return of spontaneous circulation than other groups (p = 0.019).

The results suggest that in swine models, the optimal treatment for venlafaxine overdose would include vasopressin with lipids.