MedWire News: Bipolar disorder patients taking second-generation antipsychotic medications are just as likely to develop the metabolic syndrome as schizophrenia patients taking these types of drugs, research shows.
The metabolic syndrome is a term used to describe a cluster of risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, which are associated with an increased risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems.
Dr Christoph Correll, from the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, USA, and team explain that previous research has shown that the use of second-generation antipsychotics is associated with an increased risk of the metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia, but they add that less is known about the risk in bipolar patients taking these drugs.
To investigate, the researchers studied data on 111 patients with schizophrenia and 75 with bipolar disorder who were taking second-generation antipsychotic medications and who were matched for age, gender and race.
The team notes that, compared with schizophrenia patients, those with bipolar disorder had, on average, a lower body mass index, were more likely to receive mood stabilizing drugs and less likely to be treated with more than one antipsychotic.
However, despite these differences, bipolar disorder patients were just as likely to have the metabolic syndrome as those with schizophrenia. Indeed, 43% of the bipolar patients and 46% of those with schizophrenia met criteria for having the metabolic syndrome.
The use of mood stabilizing drugs was not associated with an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, the researchers note.
Writing in the journal Bipolar Disorders, Dr Correll and team conclude: “Patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia who are treated with second-generation antipsychotics have similarly high rates of [the] metabolic syndrome.
They add: “These findings suggest a shared susceptibility to antipsychotic-related metabolic dysregulation that is not primarily related to psychiatric diagnosis or… mood stabiliser treatment.”