Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS) is the most serious of acute neurological side effects produced by antipsychotic medication, the prevalence of which varies from 0,4–1,4%. It is typically characterized by hyperthermia, rigidity, altered consciousness and autonomic dysfunction. NMS is induced less by atypical antipsychotics than by conventional antipsychotics, and one particular atypical antipsychotic - quetiapine - rarely causes NMS. In this work, we describe a case of quetiapine-induced NMS, while reviewing the recent literature on this condition.

We searched for scientific articles about this topic on the databases MEDLINE, LILACS and PsycINFO, using the search words “neuroleptic malignant syndrome” and “quetiapine”. We chose to preferentially include original articles and recent reviews, or those considered classical articles in the scientific literature.