Key result
Med Safety Scan scores assess cumulative medication QT burden in patients with serious mental illness.
Why the study?
Combinations of medications in serious mental illness pose unpredictable cumulative QTc prolongation risks, yet little clinical guidance informs clinicians on actions to take when prescribing clinically necessary risk-bearing combinations.
Cross-Sectional
This study assesses the cumulative QTc prolongation risk burden from psychiatric medications using Med Safety Scan scores to guide safer prescribing in patients with serious mental illness.
May support QT risk assessment in serious mental illness; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before practice change.
The scientific progress made in the pharmacologic management of serious mental illness (SMI) has been significant. However, the benefits of medication management must continually be weighed against the risks of adverse effects of the agents prescribed. While many medications pose increased danger of QTc prolongation, which may result in malignant arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, the combination of medications contributing QTc risk can result in an impact of unpredictable pharmacodynamic magnitude. Pharmacists play a key role in communicating QTc risks to prescribers, however little if any clinical guidance informs clinicians of specific actions to take when initiating or continuing a clinically necessary combination that poses risk. This study is a cross-sectional view of Med Safety Scan (MSS) QT prolongation risk scores, generated from the ranking tool available from the CredibleMeds website, intended to provide greater understanding of overall risk of QT burden to assist in the prescribing of medications to patients with SMI in a psychiatric hospital.
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Demler et al. (2023) conducted a cross-sectional in Serious mental illness (SMI). Medications contributing QTc risk was evaluated on Med Safety Scan (MSS) QT prolongation risk scores. A cross-sectional study evaluated Med Safety Scan QT prolongation risk scores to assess the cumulative QT burden of medications in patients with serious mental illness.
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