Does amiodarone therapy cause delirium in patients treated for recurrent wide QRS complex tachycardia?
This case report highlights a rare adverse effect of amiodarone therapy, specifically acute delirium that is reversible upon discontinuation.
PSYCHIATRIC disturbances have not been associated with amiodarone therapy (1, 2). We report the case of a pa-tient who had an acute episode of delirium while taking amiodarone. The delirium was completely reversed after discontinuation of amiodarone therapy. A 66-year-old white man with no previous psychiatric history was referred for electrophysiologic testing. He had an 8-year history of recurrent wide QRS complex tachycardia unsuccess-fully treated with procainamide, quinidine, and tocainide. He had used alcohol heavily, but denied any alcohol use for 16 years. On admission, his antiarrhythmic therapy (mexiletine, 200 mg orally every 8 hours) was discontinued. He subsequently developed several episodes of sustained wide QRS complex tachycardia refractory to treatment with lidocaine and bretyli-
Richard G. Trohman (1988) studied this question.
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