Introduction: It is known that some antipsychotics are associated with increased risk of sudden death from the potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmia. The aim of present work was to reveal electrocardiographic changes in patients with schizophrenia.
Methods: . 71 patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia were investigated, among them 30 females and 50 males.
Results: It was detected such kind of changes by Electrocardiography: Sinus tachycardia 8,45 %; sinus bradycardia 11,26%; QTc was prolonged in 21.4 %, p= 0.047., post infarction scarring Q wave and QS complex was detected in 19,71%. Extrasystolic arhythmia revealed in 45%, Conduction block was detected in 5,63 %. There was high correlation between QTc prolongation and Haloperidol dosage p<0,001. Totally electrocardiographic changes were manifested in 44.3 % of the patients.
Conclusions: As the results have shown, ECG changes occurred in quite high rate among the patients with schizophrenia. Use of electrocardiograms (ECGs) to monitor the safety of pharmacotherapy is the best way in psychiatric clinics. Because neuroleptics affect cardiac repolarization, QTc has been found to be an accurate indicator of their effect on the heart.