This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Thomas G. Burnakis, PharmD
Wyandotte General Hospital Wyandotte, Mich

JAMA. 1985;253(11):1557.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The report by Alexander et al¹ of hypotension and cardiopulmonary arrest from concurrent haloperidol and propranolol therapy was interesting; however, I find difficulty in accepting part of their proposed mechanism. They state that -receptor binding and relaxant effects of haloperidol, as well as "the relaxant effect on peripheral blood vessels by propranolol," could have led to the reported event. In actuality, propranolol is not felt to decrease peripheral resistance and may, because of β-blockade with unopposed -stimulation, increase tone in these vessels.²

Propranolol hydrochloride by itself in a 49-year-old man has caused a situation similar to the event described by these authors,³ and has been associated with causing various, serious, cardiac arrhythmias.⁴ In a similar manner, haloperidol by itself has been reported to cause multifocal premature ventricular contractions⁵ that could also produce the clinical situation described by Alexander et al.

Without further . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?