Antipsychotic- induced weight gain and the gender-specific - A systematic review

Abstract

Summary:

Schizophrenia continues to be the most complex psychotic disorder. Antipsychotics are the first line and the most common treatment prescribed. Appropriate and early treatment is a critical strategy. It has been proven that there is a significant risk of weight gain when using olanzapine and clozapine. The goal of this systematic review was to evaluate the gender differences and olanzapine and clozapine-induced weight gain in first-episode schizophrenia. The search was conducted using 3 databases PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase (Ovid), and PsycINFO (Ovid) following the PRISMA checklist. 11 studies were eligible for the systematic review. These included 1,189 patients, out of which 94 patients were treated with olanzapine and only 11 clozapine. All studies acknowledged significant weight gain after being treated with olanzapine. However, there was limited information about clozapine perhaps due to most studies being conducted in short durations. Furthermore, only 5 studies out of 11 discussed gender differences. Yet, 2 studies proved that gender does not associate with patients’ weight gain. There may be a relationship between gender differences and weight gain induced by olanzapine, while the 4 studies have not discussed the gender differences. However, there is a lack of evidence to confirm this. Thus, further research is required with a larger sample and across a longer time frame, to clearly identify the gender differences.