2023 14th Annual NUBE Conference

Patients with mental health disorders have excessive all-cause mortality compared to the general population even when accounting for tobacco and lifestyle differences. Cardiac deaths are significantly above predicted numbers. Psychiatrists, internal medicine physicians, and even emergency physicians often interpret ecgs for acute ischemia or obvious arrhythmias. Drugs of abuse and many medicines frequently prescribed by psychiatrists and physicians can put patients at increased risk of cardiac ischemia and arrhythmias potentially leading to sudden cardiac death. This presentation will introduce a simple algorithmic way to interpret the ecg and discuss of some of the drugs of abuse and commonly prescribed medications that may put patients at increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. This may lead to introducing certain considerations and cautions in prescribing certain medications.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn an algorithmic approach to interpreting the ECG in patients with mental health conditions.
2. Understand how various mental health medications can potentially put patients at risk of cardiac events. 
3. Explore how this may be useful to decrease the excessive all-cause mortality of patients with mental health disorders.