ArticleDrug safety2020
Psychiatric Disorders and Hydroxychloroquine for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A VigiBase Study.
Article in Drug safety, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Involvement of virus infections and antiviral agents in schizophrenia.Psychological medicine · 2025Review
- Safety of Hydroxychloroquine: What a Dermatologist Should Know.American journal of clinical dermatology · 2025Review
- Prescribed Drugs and Self-Directed Violence: A Descriptive Study in the Spanish Pharmacovigilance Database.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and New-Onset Psychosis: A Comprehensive Review.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
- Hydroxychloroquine, Interleukin-6 Receptor Antagonists and Corticoid Treatments of Acute COVID-19 Infection: Psychiatric Symptoms and Mental Disorders 4 Months Later.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Psychological Impact and Risk of Suicide in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients, During the Initial Stage of the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of patient safety · 2022Article
- Safety of Short-Term Treatments with Oral Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine in Patients with and without COVID-19: A Systematic Review.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- First Episode, Late-Onset Organic Mania During the Convalescence Phase of COVID-19: Case Series and Literature Review.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2022Article
- Remitting neuropsychiatric symptoms in COVID-19 patients: Viral cause or drug effect?Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- [Central nervous system adverse events potentially associated with drugs used for COVID-19: scoping reviewEventos adversos en el sistema nervioso central potencialmente relacionados con los medicamentos para tratar la COVID-19: revisión exploratoria].Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2022Article
- Suicidal Behavior in the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Review
- Psychotropics and COVID-19: An analysis of safety and prophylaxis.L'Encephale · 2021Article
- Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine Use and Suicide Risk: Hypotheses for Confluent Etiopathogenetic Mechanisms?Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Electrophysiological and Proarrhythmic Effects of Hydroxychloroquine Challenge in Guinea-Pig Hearts.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2021Article
- Neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19, potential neurotropic mechanisms, and therapeutic interventions.Translational psychiatry · 2021Review
- Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of COVID-19: A Review.Advances in psychiatry and behavioral health · 2021Review
- Just a Reflection: Does Drug Repurposing Perpetuate Sex-Gender Bias in the Safety Profile?Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The three syndromes and six Chinese patent medicine study during the recovery phase of COVID-19.Chinese medicine · 2021Review
- Safety Consequences of Off-Label Drugs Used for COVID-19.Drug safety · 2021Article
- Development of a Network-Based Signal Detection Tool: The COVID-19 Adversome in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionIn the stressful context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, some reports have raised concerns regarding psychiatric disorders with the use of hydroxychloroquine. In this study, we reviewed all psychiatric adverse effects with hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients, as well as in other indications, reported in VigiBase, the World Health Organization's (WHO) global database of individual case safety reports.
methodsFirst, we analyzed all psychiatric adverse effects, including suicide, of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients reported to 16 June 2020. We also performed disproportionality analysis to investigate the risk of reporting psychiatric disorders with hydroxychloroquine compared with remdesivir, tocilizumab, or lopinavir/ritonavir prescribed in COVID-19 patients. We used reporting odds ratios (RORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to calculate disproportionality. Second, we sought to examine the psychiatric safety profile of hydroxychloroquine in other indications (before 2020).
resultsAmong the 1754 reports with hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients, we found 56 psychiatric adverse effects. Half of these adverse effects were serious, including four completed suicides, three cases of intentional self-injury, and 12 cases of psychotic disorders with hallucinations. Compared with remdesivir, tocilizumab, or lopinavir/ritonavir, the use of hydroxychloroquine was associated with an increased risk of reporting psychiatric disorders (ROR 6.27, 95% CI 2.74-14.35). Before 2020, suicide was the main cause of death among all adverse drug reactions reported with hydroxychloroquine, followed by cardiac adverse effects (cardiomyopathy) and respiratory failure.
conclusionsThis pharmacovigilance analysis suggests that COVID-19 patients exposed to hydroxychloroquine experienced serious psychiatric disorders, and, among these patients, some committed suicide. Further real-world studies are needed to quantify the psychiatric risk associated with hydroxychloroquine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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