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Trazodone‐induced cardiac arrhythmias: a report of two cases
Author(s) -
Winkler D.,
Ortner R.,
Pjrek E.,
Aschauer H.,
Kasper S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/hup.746
Subject(s) - general hospital , psychiatry , medicine , library science , psychology , family medicine , computer science
Trazodone is a phenylpiperazine antidepressant without structural similarities to other antidepressants and acts as a serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptor antagonist/reuptake inhibitor in the central nervous system. Its most potent pharmacological effect appears to be antagonist action at 5-HT2 and 5-HT1C receptors. Trazodone has been introduced in the 1980s. Since then millions of patients have been exposed to trazodone. Because of its generally favorable tolerability and its sedative properties in addition to its antidepressant effect trazodone had been widely used as an alternative or an additional treatment to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Kasper et al., 2005; Mendelson, 2005). We would like to report on two patients, who were treated with trazodone among other drugs, and in whom we observed cardiac arrhythmia as a side effect.