Background: The antipsychotic drug (APD) clozapine (CLZ) is under-prescribed because of concerns about its safety. We evaluated in separate protocols the frequency of cardiomyopathy and hyponatraemia, which are adverse drug effects, where few comparative studies are available.
Methods: Cross-sectional studies in subjects treated for at least 3 consecutive months with the same drug were conducted.
Background: Few studies on the association between atypical antipsychotic drug (AAP) administration and metabolic dysfunction have concurrently evaluated the general population (GP), other psychotropic drug treatments and drug-free psychiatric patients.
Methods: We assessed the frequency of the metabolic syndrome (MS) according to the National Cholesterol Education Program criteria (NCEP) and its constituting variables in a GP sample (n=271) and in patients receiving, for at least three consecutive months, antiepileptic drugs (n=93), olanzapine (n=162), clozapine (n=105), typical antipsychotics (n=117), other AAP (n=58), other psychotropic drugs (n=185), and drug-free individuals (n=636). Subjects were clinically classified as schizophrenia, bipolar or other axis I disorders (DSM-IV-RT), and as first-degree relatives of each diagnostic group.
Background: Clozapine is the most effective agent in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. However, it is frequently associated with excessive body weight (BW) gain, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. The antidiabetic metformin (MET) has proved effective to assist in BW control during olanzapine administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Excessive body weight gain (BWG) is a clinically relevant side effect of olanzapine administration. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether metformin prevents or reverses BWG in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder under olanzapine administration. Secondarily we evaluated diverse metabolic variables.
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