Metabolic syndrome in schizophrenia: how much is attributable to drug treatment?

Abstract

Aims: Patients with schizophrenia are more prone to develop metabolic disorder than others due to the combined effects of factors inherent to the disease, as well as the drugs needed to treat them. How much of these metabolic effects are attributed to antipsychotics and how much are inborn to the disorder is still unclear. The present study assessed the new onset metabolic syndrome (MS) and its various components in patients treated with oral olanzapine and quetiapine, using International Diabetic Federation (IDF) criteria modifed for the south Asian population. Methodology: A total of 60 drug naive patients with ICD-10 diagnosis of frst episode schizophrenia, divided in two groups of 30 patients each, were randomly allocated to receive two different treatments i.e. olanzapine and quetiapine. Written informed consent was obtained from the patients or their guardians. At baseline all patients received a full clinical examination and metabolic screening including fasting blood sugar and lipid profle. The patients were followed up for a period of 6 and 12 weeks. The data was analyzed using SPSS.10 version. Results: No statistically signifcant difference was found when baseline mean values of corresponding characteristics were compared between two groups. At 6 weeks none of the patient treated with olanzapine developed metabolic syndrome (MS), but among the quetiapine group 3.33% developed MS. At the end of 12 weeks, 20% patients had MS in the olanzapine treatment group and 10% in the quetiapine treatment group. Conclusions: Although the rate of MS in the present study is lower than in other studies, the fndings of the present study are possibly more reliable, since the effect of single drug therapy was observed with no concomitant confounders.