Observations placeholder
Digoxin
Identifier
005082
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Digoxin, didgitoxin and its derivatives meditoxin etc are used in the treatment of various arrhythmias, namely atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and sometimes heart failure that cannot be controlled by other medication.
The reasoning used by medics is that high ventricular rate leads to insufficient diastolic filling time. By slowing down the conduction in the AV node and increasing its refractory period, digoxin can reduce the ventricular rate. The arrhythmia itself is not affected, but the pumping function of the heart improves owing to improved filling.
As a medication, it has fallen out of favour somewhat, because other medicines have proved more effective; and getting the dose right proved a problem. The occurrence of adverse drug reactions is common, owing to its narrow therapeutic index (the margin between effectiveness and toxicity). It also has some unfortunate interactions with other drugs. Digoxin has potentially dangerous interactions with verapamil, amiodarone, erythromycin, and epinephrine (as would be injected with a local anesthetic).
Researchers at Yale University looked at data from an earlier study to see if digoxin affected men and women differently. That study determined that digoxin did not reduce deaths overall but did result in less hospitalization. However women in the study who took digoxin died more frequently (33%) than women who took a placebo pill (29%). They calculated that digoxin increased the risk of death in women by 23%. There was no difference in the death rate for men in the study.
It is worth adding that medically there is a difference between digoxin and digitoxin………
Comparing the toxicity of digoxin and digitoxin in a geriatric population: should an old drug be rediscovered? Roever C, Ferrante J, Gonzalez EC, Pal N, Roetzheim RG.; Department of Family Medicine, University of South Florida and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa 33612, USA.
BACKGROUND: Little information is available regarding toxicity rates of the two available forms of cardiac glycosides (digoxin, digitoxin) when used in elderly patients.
METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the charts of all patients more than 60 years of age who were chronically managed with a cardiac glycoside and were hospitalized during the period January 1995 through January 1998. Toxicity was defined as any clinical event that required either a reduction in dose of the drug or its discontinuance.
RESULTS: Toxicity occurred among 7.6% of hospitalizations in which digitoxin was used, compared with 18.3% of hospitalizations in which digoxin was used. In multivariate analysis, the odds of toxicity adjusted for other clinical characteristics were three times greater for patients taking digoxin than for patients taking digitoxin.
CONCLUSION: Hospitalized elderly patients taking digitoxin had a lower rate of toxicity than those taking digoxin.
PMID: 10701788
A description of the experience
The figures refer to the number of reported hallucinations on the ehealthme web site.
Digoxin ‘involuntary’ hallucinations caused by prescription] also known as digitalis, is a purified cardiac glycoside extracted from the foxglove plant. It is used in the treatment of atrial fibrilation, atrial flutter and sometimes heart failure that cannot be controlled by other medication. Digoxin preparations are commonly marketed under the trade names Lanoxin , Digitek, and Lanoxicaps.
On Jul, 28, 2015: 51,888 people reported to have side effects when taking Digoxin. Among them, 429 people (0.83%) have Hallucination.
Time on Digoxin when people have Hallucination :
| < 1 month | 1 - 6 months | 6 - 12 months | 1 - 2 years | 2 - 5 years | 5 - 10 years | 10+ years | |
| Hallucination | 27.54% | 10.14% | 5.80% | 17.39% | 18.84% | 13.04% | 7.25% |