Iatrogenic 'torsade de pointes' ventricular tachycardia.

Three patients who developed a distinctive form of ventricular tachycardia with oscillating QRS axis, while they were receiving drugs known to prolong the repolarization time are described. In one of the patients suffering from psychiatric illness and receiving psychotropic drugs the arrhythmia was fatal. It is postulated that the tendency to this arrhythmia was augmented by repeated electric counter shocks and negative bathmotropic drugs. Functional factors may contribute to the pathogenesis of this arrhythmia which seems to constitute an entity.