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Blepharospasm: an uncommon adverse effect caused by long-term administration of olanzapine

  • Tarun Arora , Vikas Maharshi EMAIL logo , Harmeet S. Rehan and Pravesh Nagar

Abstract

Background:

Blepharospasm is one of the components of drug-induced Meige’s syndrome which is reported to be caused by typical antipsychotics. Reports of blepharospasm or Meige’s syndrome caused by atypical antipsychotics are rare.

Case:

A 30-year-old female patient presented to psychiatry out patient department (OPD) with chief complaints of inability to keep her eyes open for long and excessive blinking for 2 months, irritation of eyes, watery discharge from eyes and photophobia for last 1 month. The patient had been taking olanzapine 10 mg, sertraline 100 mg and divalproex sodium 500 mg per orally on once a day basis for the management of major depressive disorder with psychotic features for last 6 months. Routine blood analysis, thyroid function, EEG, MRI, lipid profile did not reveal any abnormality. Ocular examination was also within normal limits. Olanzapine was suspected as a culprit for the above symptoms of patient, so it was replaced with quetiapine 25 mg/day. Patient showed partial recovery of symptoms within 1 week and complete recovery within 2 months of stopping olanzapine. Causality of olanzapine-induced blepharospasm as per WHO-UMC scale was probable.

Conclusions:

Olanzapine (atypical antipsychotics) should also be kept in the list of suspected drugs causing blepharospasm in psychotic patients on treatment although further similar evidences from observational studies and/or reports are needed to establish the causal relationship.


Corresponding author: Dr. Vikas Maharshi, Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, Phone: +919716315929

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Dr. Gagan Hans (Senior Resident) who helped us get this rare case from outpatient clinic of psychiatry department of this hospital.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2016-3-19
Accepted: 2016-7-23
Published Online: 2016-9-22
Published in Print: 2017-1-1

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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