Connection With Direct Serotonergic Agonist Drugs
Elevated prevalence of cardiac fibrosis and related valvopathies was found to be associated with use of a number of unrelated drugs following long-term statistical analysis once the drugs had been on the market for some time. The cause of this was unknown at the time, but eventually it was realised that all the implicated drugs acted as agonists at 5-HT2B receptors in the heart in addition to their intended sites of action elsewhere in the body. The precise mechanisms involved remain elusive however, as while the cardiotoxicity shows some dose-response relationship, it does not always develop, and consistent daily use over an extended period tends to be most strongly predictive of development of valvopathy. The drugs most classically associated with the condition are weight loss drugs such as fenfluramine and chlorphentermine, and anti-parkinsonian drugs such as pergolide and cabergoline, which are prescribed to be taken several times a day, often for months or years at a time. Drugs which act as 5-HT2B agonists but are used only intermittently are capable of producing the same kind of heart damage, but tend to be less likely to do so. Also while the heart valve changes can result in permanent damage and life-threatening heart problems if use of the causative drug is continued, longitudinal studies of former patients suggest that the damage will heal over time to some extent at least.
Read more about this topic: Cardiac Fibrosis
Famous quotes containing the words connection with, connection, direct and/or drugs:
“What is the vanity of the vainest man compared with the vanity which the most modest person possesses when, in connection with nature and the world, he experiences himself as “man”!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers’ suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions and unwanted children.”
—Gro Harlem Brundtland (b. 1939)
“Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon; they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compass to direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel; for want of which, pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.”
—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (b. 1926)