Adverse effects of amiodarone

Evidence Summaries

Level of Evidence = A

Low-dose amiodarone (400 mg/day) has thyroid, neurologic, dermatologic, ocular, and bradycardic adverse effects.

A systematic review ¹ including 4 double-blind RCTs with a total of 1,465 subjects was abstracted in DARE. The patients were on a maintenance dose of 400 mg/day (low-dose treatment) for at least 12 months. A higher likelihood of experiencing adverse effects as a result of low-dose amiodarone was found: thyroid OR 4.2 (95% CI 2.0 to 8.7), neurologic OR 2.0 (1.1 to 3.7), skin OR 2.5 (1.1 to 6.2), ocular OR 3.4 (1.2 to 9.6), bradycardic OR 2.2 (1.1 to 4.3). The odds of discontinuing the drug in the amiodarone group were approximately 1.5 times that of the placebo group (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.2 to 1.9).

According to another review ² abstracted in DARE, amiodarone appears to be associated with a low incidence of proarrhythmic events with torsade de pointes developing in less than 1% of cases.

The following decision support rules contain links to this evidence summary:

Follow-up of patients who are on amiodaronehttp://www.ebmeds.org/ebmeds/ebmeds_home.asp...

References

1. Vorperian VR, Havighurst TC, Miller S, January CT. Adverse effects of low dose amiodarone: a meta-analysis. J Am Coll Cardiol 1997 Sep;30(3):791-8. [PMID:9283542]

2. Hohnloser SH, Klingenheben T, Singh BN. Amiodarone-associated proarrhythmic effects. A review with special reference to torsade de pointes tachycardia. Ann Intern Med 1994 Oct 1;121(7):529-35. [PMID:8067651]

Adverse effects of amiodarone is a sample topic from the Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines.

To view other topics, please sign in or purchase a subscription.

Evidence Central is an integrated web and mobile solution that helps clinicians quickly answer etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis questions using the latest evidence-based research. Learn more.

Citation

"Adverse Effects of Amiodarone." Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines, Duodecim Medical Publications Limited, 2019. Evidence Central, evidence.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/view/EBMG/450157/all/Adverse_effects_of_amiodarone.

Adverse effects of amiodarone. Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines. Duodecim Medical Publications Limited; 2019. https://evidence.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/view/EBMG/450157/all/Adverse_effects_of_amiodarone. Accessed January 19, 2019.

Adverse effects of amiodarone. (2019). In Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines. Available from https://evidence.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/view/EBMG/450157/all/Adverse_effects_of_amiodarone

Adverse Effects of Amiodarone [Internet]. In: Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines. Duodecim Medical Publications Limited; 2019. [cited 2019 January 19]. Available from: https://evidence.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/view/EBMG/450157/all/Adverse_effects_of_amiodarone

* When formatting your citation, note that all book, journal, and database titles should be italicized* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case

TY - ELEC T1 - Adverse effects of amiodarone ID - 450157 BT - Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines UR - https://evidence.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/view/EBMG/450157/all/Adverse_effects_of_amiodarone PB - Duodecim Medical Publications Limited DB - Evidence Central DP - Unbound Medicine ER -