A 59-year-old male patient was diagnosed as having essential hypertension and was prescribed amlodipine 2.5 mg 6 years ago; this was increased to 5 mg 2 years ago. The patient is an alcoholic. Physical and laboratory examination was essentially normal. He had no other concurrent illness or signs of vitamin deficiency.
About a month ago he developed loss of taste sensation and numbness in the anterior two-thirds of the tongue. It was sudden in onset. One week later the patient ran out of amlodipine supply and did not refill it. At the time he reported return of taste sensation. After 10 days he started taking amlodipine again, following which he had loss of taste sensation. After this he consulted the physician and was told that this medication was probably the cause of his loss of taste.
Search of the literature has revealed that only two patients were reported to have dysgeusia with nifedipine [1]. A large postmarketing surveillance did not reveal any taste loss with the calcium channel blockers [2]. The causal relationship in this case is strengthened by the de-challenge and re-challenge which the patient had inadvertently done himself. The only inexplicable factor is the delay in onset of dysgeusia. This topic assumes importance in the light of the fact that amlodipine is a very commonly prescribed drug.
References
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