Antipsychotic Drugs Put Kids at Risk

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Children and teens that take antipsychotic meds may be putting themselves at risk for some very adult health problems, new research shows.

Children and teens in the United States who suffer from psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder and nonpsychotic mental disorders are often prescribed second-generation antipsychotic drugs; but a big concern of those drugs are their cardiometabolic effects, including age-inappropriate weight gain, obesity, hypertension, and lipid and glucose abnormalities. Such problems may be especially harmful to a still-developing individual.

A group of 205 patients between ages 4 and 19, who had not previously taken antipsychotic medication, were given such drugs for 12 weeks. Throughout the study, 10 to 36 percent of patients had transitioned to overweight or obese status. After about 11 weeks of treatment, patients on average had gained 18.7 pounds with olanzapine, 13.4 pounds with quetiapine, 11.7 pounds with risperidone and 9.7 pounds with aripiprazole. A comparison group of untreated patients gained, on average, 0.4 pounds during that time. 

Researchers say olanzapine and quetiapine also adversely affected total cholesterol levels, triglycerides, non-HDL cholesterol and the ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol.

"Our results … suggest that guidelines for antipsychotic medication exposure for vulnerable pediatric and adolescent patients naïve to antipsychotic medication should consider more frequent (e.g., biannual) cardiometabolic monitoring after the first 3 months of treatment," study authors wrote.

Source: JAMA, October 28, 2009

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