Antipsychotic medicines are mainly used to treat psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The study behind this report compared their use in over 25,000 people with blood clots in their legs or lungs and in almost 90,000 people who did not have clots. It found that there was a 32% increase in risk of a blood clot in people currently using antipsychotics. However, the overall risk of having a blood clot was still very small, even among people taking antipsychotics. Overall, people in the study had about a 0.1% chance of having a blood clot each year.
The use of antipsychotic drugs is well established in treating conditions such as schizophrenia. If the small increase in risk of blood clots is confirmed by future research, this would have to be considered when weighing up the potential benefits and harms for each patient. People taking antipsychotics should not be concerned by this news and should not stop using their medication. Any concerns raised by this news can be discussed with a DOCTOR.
