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Impact Of Psychotropic Medications On Electrical Cardiac Conduction In The Emergency Department: A Best Practice Review, Juliann Hatt

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Abstract Background: The effects of psychotropic drugs on cardiac repolarization have increasingly gained attention in research and clinical practice over the last 2 decades. The absolute risk of cardiac arrhythmia, such as the polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, Torsades de Pointes (TdP), is low (14 per 10,000 patients/year) and sudden cardiac death as a consequence of all cardiac arrhythmias is less frequent (Braillon et al., 2017). TdP can occur at therapeutic doses of second-generation antipsychotics and antidepressants and with a corrected Q-T (QTc) interval >500 ms. Many psychotropic medications can delay cardiac repolarization thereby producing prolonged QTc in the electrocardiogram (ECG). Emergency …