Antipsychotic drugs which are prescribed for schizophrenia, autism and dementia can make the patients twice susceptible to death due to sudden heart failure.

The drugs in question have replaced the older and much cheaper drugs on the premise that they are more effective.

Dr. Wayne Ray of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and colleagues studied nearly 277,000 people between 30 to 74 years in Tennessee. It was found by them that patients on the highest dose had the greatest risk. But the risk waned away once the drugs were discontinued.

In order to reach the correct conclusion, patients who already suffered heart problems were excluded from the research.

The researchers found that 478 patients who were on the drugs had suffered sudden cardiac deaths. This was twice the rate of the control group. Higher dose of the drugs also made the risk of cardiac deaths also higher.

 The lead author of the study, Wayne A. Ray, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt and the Nashville veterans’ hospital says that the study implies that physicians should be very careful in cardiovascular evaluation before prescribing any of these drugs “especially if there are alternative treatments. Then, if they’re used, to pay careful attention to using the lowest possible dose.