Successful treatment of intractable visual hallucinations with 5-HT 2A antagonist ketanserin

Iris E.C. Sommer; Hidde Kleijer; Lucy Visser; Teus Van Laar

doi:10.1136/bcr-2018-224340

Successful treatment of intractable visual hallucinations with 5-HT 2A antagonist ketanserin

Iris E.C. Sommer^*, Hidde Kleijer, Lucy Visser, Teus Van Laar

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychiatry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Hallucinations, visual, auditory or in another sensory modality, often respond well to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Some, however, do not and can be very chronic and debilitating. We present a patient with schizophrenia with intractable hallucinations despite state of the art care, including high-dose clozapine and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Based on the possible role of the 5-HT 2A receptor in hallucinations, we treated her with the antihypertensive drug ketanserin, a 5-HT 2A receptor antagonist. This significantly reduced her visual but not her auditory hallucinations, suggesting a possible role of the 5HT 2A receptor in the pathophysiology of specifically visual hallucinations. This is the first time ketanserin has been described to successfully reduce visual hallucinations in a patient with schizophrenia.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-3
Journal	BMJ Case Reports
Volume	2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-224340
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2018

Keywords

Parkinson's disease
psychiatry (drugs and medicines)
schizophrenia
therapeutic indications

Access to Document

10.1136/bcr-2018-224340

Cite this

@article{af47be37ab39461a8327ef39922bd664,

title = "Successful treatment of intractable visual hallucinations with 5-HT 2A antagonist ketanserin",

abstract = "Hallucinations, visual, auditory or in another sensory modality, often respond well to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Some, however, do not and can be very chronic and debilitating. We present a patient with schizophrenia with intractable hallucinations despite state of the art care, including high-dose clozapine and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Based on the possible role of the 5-HT 2A receptor in hallucinations, we treated her with the antihypertensive drug ketanserin, a 5-HT 2A receptor antagonist. This significantly reduced her visual but not her auditory hallucinations, suggesting a possible role of the 5HT 2A receptor in the pathophysiology of specifically visual hallucinations. This is the first time ketanserin has been described to successfully reduce visual hallucinations in a patient with schizophrenia.",

keywords = "Parkinson's disease, psychiatry (drugs and medicines), schizophrenia, therapeutic indications",

author = "Sommer, {Iris E.C.} and Hidde Kleijer and Lucy Visser and {Van Laar}, Teus",

year = "2018",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1136/bcr-2018-224340",

language = "English",

volume = "2018",

pages = "1--3",

journal = "BMJ Case Reports",

issn = "1757-790X",

publisher = "BMJ Publishing Group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Successful treatment of intractable visual hallucinations with 5-HT 2A antagonist ketanserin

AU - Sommer, Iris E.C.

AU - Kleijer, Hidde

AU - Visser, Lucy

AU - Van Laar, Teus

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - Hallucinations, visual, auditory or in another sensory modality, often respond well to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Some, however, do not and can be very chronic and debilitating. We present a patient with schizophrenia with intractable hallucinations despite state of the art care, including high-dose clozapine and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Based on the possible role of the 5-HT 2A receptor in hallucinations, we treated her with the antihypertensive drug ketanserin, a 5-HT 2A receptor antagonist. This significantly reduced her visual but not her auditory hallucinations, suggesting a possible role of the 5HT 2A receptor in the pathophysiology of specifically visual hallucinations. This is the first time ketanserin has been described to successfully reduce visual hallucinations in a patient with schizophrenia.

AB - Hallucinations, visual, auditory or in another sensory modality, often respond well to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Some, however, do not and can be very chronic and debilitating. We present a patient with schizophrenia with intractable hallucinations despite state of the art care, including high-dose clozapine and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Based on the possible role of the 5-HT 2A receptor in hallucinations, we treated her with the antihypertensive drug ketanserin, a 5-HT 2A receptor antagonist. This significantly reduced her visual but not her auditory hallucinations, suggesting a possible role of the 5HT 2A receptor in the pathophysiology of specifically visual hallucinations. This is the first time ketanserin has been described to successfully reduce visual hallucinations in a patient with schizophrenia.

KW - Parkinson's disease

KW - psychiatry (drugs and medicines)

KW - schizophrenia

KW - therapeutic indications

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049226459&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1136/bcr-2018-224340

DO - 10.1136/bcr-2018-224340

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85049226459

SN - 1757-790X

VL - 2018

SP - 1

EP - 3

JO - BMJ Case Reports

JF - BMJ Case Reports

ER -

Successful treatment of intractable visual hallucinations with 5-HT 2A antagonist ketanserin

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this