What Doctors Don't Tell YouA number of classes of drugs can cause cerebral hemorrhage or infarction. These include:
Sumatripan, the migraine drug (Intensive Care Med, 1995; 21: 82-3).
Beta blockers (Revist Clinica Espan, 1993;192: 228-30).
Nefedipine (causing cortical blindness) (BMJ, 1992; 305: 693).
Chemotherapy or hormones given during chemotherapy (Am J Clin Onc, 1992; 15:168-73).
Contraceptive pill (Acta Neurol Belg, 1992;92: 45-7).
Oral anticoagulant therapy (The Lancet, 1991; 338: 1158).
Excessive use of nasal decongestants (J Neurol, Neurosurg & Psychiatry; 1989; 52: 541-3).
Blood pressure lowering drugs (Med J Australia, 1987; 146: 412-4).
Phenylpropanolamine, a drug available over the counter in weight loss, nasal congestants and cold preparations (Am J Emerg Med, 1987; 5: 163-4).
Recreational drugs, like Ecstacy, cocaine and methamphetamines (European Neuro, 1995; 35: 193; South Med J, 1995; 88: 352-4; Europ Neuro, 1994; 34: 16-22).
Anabolic steroids (Neuro, 1994; 44: 2405-6).
Stroke or thrombosis clot thinning medication can itself cause stroke.
This includes:
Streptokinase/subcutaneous heparin therapy, combination therapy, (Circulation,1995; 92 : 2811-8) and recombinant tissue type plasminogen activator (Circulation;1991; 83: 448-59).
Anticoagulant medication (Arch of Neuro, 1985; 42: 1033-5).
Stroke can also be brought on by:
Ingesting hydrogen peroxide (Stroke; 1994;25: 1065-7).
Lumbar myelography (Nervenarzt, 1994;65: 125-7).
Heavy drinking in men (Stroke; 1996; 27:1033-9).
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
