Cardiovascular Death and Manic-depressive Psychosis

In order to study if tricyclic antidepressant drugs (TCA) in therapeutic doses increase the risk of death due to cardiovascular causes, the relative mortality from cardiovascular diseases was studied in two large groups of first hospitalized manic-depressive patients, one from the TCA era, the other from the period just before the introduction of TCA. Both groups were selected from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register and followed for an average of 4.5 years. Among 2662 manic-depressive men hospitalized between 1969 and 1976, the relative cardiovascular mortality was 1.53 compared to the general population. Among 1133 such cases admitted between 1950 and 1956, the rate was 1.87. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that TCA contribute to the cardiovascular mortality in manic-depressives and even support suggestions that TCA treatment may lower the risk of death by cardiovascular disease, suicide, and other non-cancer causes.