VTE incidence similar among common SGAs

The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) does not appear to significantly differ among patients treated with second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) such as risperidone, olanzapine, or aripiprazole, results of a study have shown.

This retrospective chart review was conducted between October 2015 and December 2019. The authors sought to determine the VTE incidence among veterans at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in the US who had been prescribed aripiprazole, olanzapine, or risperidone.

A total of 823 veterans were included in the analysis. Those who received aripiprazole showed the lowest incidence of VTE at 0.4 percent, followed by the olanzapine group at 1.7 percent, and the risperidone group at 2.5 percent.

The difference in the incidence of VTE among these SGAs did not reach statistical significance.

“There was no difference in the incidence of VTE between risperidone, olanzapine, or aripiprazole,” the authors said. “Given multiple limitations with this study, higher-powered studies should be conducted to investigate the possibility of differences in the incidence of VTE between the SGAs.” 

SGAs are medications that are commonly used to treat several mental health conditions. However, recent studies have noted the association of antipsychotic medications with VTE. In addition, SGAs hold diverse side effect profiles, which are said to contribute to differences in VTE incidence, according to the authors.