The real-world incidence of severe QT prolongation in patients taking antipsychotic drugs

The increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) caused by drug-induced QT prolongation has been a prominent safety pharmacology concern for the last 30 years. Between 1994 and 2004, 9 drugs were either removed from the market or had their use restricted because of an unacceptably high risk of lethal ventricular arrhythmias,1 caused by inadvertent block of human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channels, which encode the rapid delayed-rectifier potassium current, an important contributor to cardiac repolarization.