Cardiovascular effects of antidepressants: studies of paroxetine in healthy men and depressed patients

Abstract

The classical tricyclic antidepressant drugs effectively relieve the symptoms of depression, but they have the potential to be severely toxic to the cardiovascular system--including postural hypotension after therapeutic doses and lethal arrhythmias after overdosage. Paroxetine has been shown to be of similar efficacy to the tricyclic antidepressants but has lower cardiovascular toxicity in animal models and has no effects on heart rate, blood pressure or the electrocardiogram in healthy men receiving single 20-40 mg doses. The results of two contrasting studies in depressive patients and healthy men provide strong evidence that therapeutic doses of paroxetine lack any important haemodynamic or electrophysiological effects.