Asenapine, iloperidone and lurasidone exposures in young children reported to U.S. poison centers

Asenapine, iloperidone and lurasidone are relatively new atypical antipsychotics. There is limited information on toxicity on pediatric exposures to these drugs. The objective of this study was to compare toxicity associated with asenapine, iloperidone and lurasidone exposures in young children.

A retrospective study of U.S. National Poison Data System from 2010 to 2015 of single substance exposures to asenapine, iloperidone or lurasidone in children <6 years of age that were followed to known outcome was performed.

There were 95 asenapine, 64 iloperidone and 124 lurasidone cases that met inclusion criteria. Reason was exploratory for 96% of cases. Drowsiness/lethargy occurred most frequently with iloperidone (45%) and least often with lurasidone (8%). Two iloperidone cases had respiratory depression. For asenapine, iloperidone and lurasidone, respectively, management sites were on-site non-health care facility (non-HCF) (32%, 16%, 26%), treated/discharged from emergency department (ED) (46%, 47%, 63%), admitted to noncritical care (9%, 14%, 10%) and admitted to critical care (10%, 22%, 2%). Clinical effect duration was 8 h or less for the majority of non-HCF cases (80%) and for children treated/discharged from the ED (72%). For asenapine, iloperidone and lurasidone, coded outcomes were no effect (50%, 41%, 81%), minor effect (43%, 39%, 17%), moderate (6%, 19%, 2%) and major (0, 2%, 0).

These findings suggest that in children under 6 years of age, lurasidone exposures were least serious and iloperidone exposures were most serious based on clinical effects, management sites and coded outcomes. Observation of symptomatic children in the ED for 8 h should be sufficient to make triage decisions based on persistence or resolution of clinical effects.