Iatrogenic psychosis
Anne M. Hassett, David Ames, Edmond Chiu in Psychosis in the Elderly, 2005
Calcium channel blockers are a heterogeneous group of medications commonly used in the treatment of hypertension, tachyarrhythmias, and ischemic heart disease. While there has been some interest in their use in the treatment of affective disorders, particularly mania, case reports suggest that they may also precipitate neuropsychiatric complications. Jacobsen et al (1987) reported the emergence of delirium with auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations in a young woman who received verapamil for the treatment of her bipolar disorder. Fogelman (1988) also reported thought disorder and depressive symptoms in a 45-year-old man treated with verapamil for hypertension. A similar reaction has been reported with nifedipine (Ahmad, 1994) and there are at least three case reports of diltiazem-induced delirium characterized by either schizophreniform symptoms of auditory and visual hallucinations and paranoid delusions, depressive or manic symptoms (Palat and Movahed, 1986; Busche, 1988; Binder et al, 1991).
Antidysrhythmic Drugs in Pediatrics
Sam Kacew in Drug Toxicity and Metabolism in Pediatrics, 1990
Cardiovascular complications of calcium channel blockers can be explained by their action on peripheral vasculature, cardiac inotropy, and conduction. Vasodilation may give rise to hypotension and reflex tachycardia and contribute to the development of edema of the lower extremities. The negative inotropic effect of verapamil may worsen heart failure in patients with compromised cardiac function.232 Hypotension and bradycardia have occurred in infants who were treated with verapamil for SVT.233 The incidence of side effects of verapamil in adult patients is approximately 10%, with 1% of the patients requiring discontinuation of the drug. Patients being treated concurrently with beta-blocking drugs are at special risk because of the additional negative chronotropic effect of those agents.230
Neuropharmacology for Older Adults
José León-Carrión, Margaret J. Giannini in Behavioral Neurology in the Elderly, 2001
Antihypertensive drugs are widely and frequently prescribed for older adults in the prevention of cerebrovascular disorders. The effects of antihypertensive drugs on cognition and behavior are not as yet well established. However, it is known that these drugs have diverse neuropsychological effects. The main effect of β-blockers is sedation. Calcium channel blockers can in some cases produce confusion, diuretics can produce subjective behavioral side effects, and methyldopa, when compared with other antihypertensives, has proved to cause more side effects (sedation and deterioration of mood and activities of daily living). The angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors seem to produce the fewest subjective side effects in the hypertensive patient.5,11,22,26
Immunomodulatory properties of antihypertensive drugs and digitalis glycosides
Published in Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, 2022
Paweł Bryniarski, Katarzyna Nazimek, Janusz Marcinkiewicz
Calcium channel blockers reduce the entry of calcium ions into muscle cells. Drugs from this class are divided into two subgroups. Both of these subgroups influence the arteries, relaxing them. Non-dihydropyridine derivatives (diltiazem, verapamil) affect the heart, slowing the frequency of its contractions and reducing its contractility. In contrast, dihydropyridine derivatives (nitrendipine, isradipine, nifedipine, amlodipine, lacidipine, and felodipine) do not have such effects. Indications for the use of calcium channel blockers are coronary artery disease (especially Prinzmetal’s angina), hypertension and arrhythmias (verapamil and diltiazem). The most important contraindications to the use of verapamil and diltiazem are symptomatic bradycardia, sick sinus syndrome, atrioventricular block, Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, too low blood pressure (hypotension) and heart failure. In the case of other calcium antagonists, the most important contraindications are severe aortic stenosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with outflow tract obstruction, acute coronary syndrome, hypotension and heart failure. Side effects of calcium antagonists are swelling (mainly of the feet and shins), headache, facial flushing, constipation, slow heart rate, hypotension, and rash.
T-type calcium channel blockers: a patent review (2012–2018)
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2018
Ghilsoo Nam
Introduction of the HTS systems along with the patch-clamp assay to evaluate the T-type calcium channel inhibitory activity lead to the variety of small molecule pools of the T-type calcium channel blockers [73]. Recent studies of T-type calcium channel blockers have focused on two approaches. The first is to develop subtype-selective T-type channel blockers, accompanied by other high-voltage calcium channel (L-, N-, P/Q-, and R-type) selectivity. The second is to discover dual or multi-channel blockers, such as T-/N-type, Na+-/T-type, and T-/TWIK-type channels. This indicates that T-type calcium channel blockers could apply into various CNS-related diseases, such as neuropathic pain, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorder, essential tremor and absence seizure [74–76]. Advances in pharmacological research have shown that each subtype T-type calcium channels are involved in sensory transmission and pain perception, leading to the development of subtype-selective T-type calcium blockers as a treatment for neuropathic pain. Particular focus has been paid to α1H T-type calcium channel blockers in order to find new candidates.
Association study of CACNA1C polymorphisms with large artery atherosclerotic stroke in Chinese Han population
Published in Neurological Research, 2018
Chen Peng, Ying Ding, Xin Yi, Zhiqiang Dong, Limei Cao, Qiang Li, Haiyan Ren, Lin He, Daizhan Zhou, Xu Chen
Atherosclerosis is one of the most deadly diseases, which eventually progresses to a heart attack or stroke [22]. Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process, which causes vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) dedifferentiation, proliferation, and migration [23]. Recent evidence has suggested that genetic polymorphisms have a significant effect on the sensitivity of atherosclerotic vascular diseases [24]. Calcium channels of Cav1.2 play an important role in atherosclerosis, as they are crucial for Ca2 + signal transduction VSMCs. Contraction of VSMCs is triggered by the Ca2 + current through Cav1.2, which is affected by Ca2 + channel blockers. There are many Cav1.2 calcium channel blockers, including dihydropyridines (DHPs), nifedipine, and nicardipine. And DHPs is known to exert many vascular protective effects, including effective anti-atherosclerotic effects [25]. In summary, combined with the results of our experiments, we speculate that CACNA1C gene polymorphism affects the onset of cerebral infarction; the process maybe related to the impact of atherosclerosis.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Blood Pressure
- Calcium
- Calcium Channel
- Heart Rate
- Systole
- Antihypertensive Drug
- Hypertension
- Medication
- Elderly Care
- Cerebral Vasospasm