Tokinaga N, Kondo T, Kaneko S, Otani K, Mihara K, Morita S
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1996 Dec;50(6):337-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1819.1996.tb00577.x.
A case of repetitive hallucinations during treatment with a therapeutic dosage of triazolam (0.25 mg/day) and nitrazepam (5 mg/day) is presented. The patient suffered from acute pneumonia and chronic renal failure. Such non-psychotic symptoms as anxiety, tremor and depressed feeling were observed initially. However, after co-administration of erythromycin (600 mg/day), visual hallucinations and abnormal bodily sensations developed repeatedly after each administration of triazolam or nitrazepam. This report suggests that benzodiazepine hypnotics even at a therapeutic dosage with co-administration of erythromycin causes serious psychotic symptoms in vulnerable patients with physical complications.
