New Look at antipsychotic side effect.

New look at antipsychotic side effect

Psychiatrists at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., recently reviewed patient records at their facility and found that, over one year, about 1.4 percent of the patients given antipsychotic drugs developed a potentially fatal side effect known as neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) (SN: 10/25/86, p.260). Initial signs of the reaction are fever, severe muscle rigidity and elevated heart rate and blood pressure. In some cases, coma, kidney failure, brain damage or even death can follow.

To check their "retrospective' estimate, the researchers tracked new cases of NMS over 18 months at the hospital. NMS was diagnosed in six of 679 antipsychotic-treated patients, report Paul E. Keck Jr. and his colleagues in the Oct. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY.

Combined data from the prior review and the new survey point to an estimated NMS frequency of about 1 percent, they conclude. Nevertheless, diagnostic criteria for NMS, particularly in its early stages, remain nuclear to some investigators. The McLean psychiatrists say NMS may encompass a spectrum of physiological reactions to antipsychotic drugs, with mild and more severe forms.