| Risk
for development of Type II diabetes differs significantly among antipsychotic
agents A large-scale records review suggests that the risk for developing Type II diabetes varies widely among antipsychotic agents, with the highest risks associated with olanzapine, clozapine, and high-potency and low-potency conventional drugs, according to an article in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The American researchers studied records for patients with a reported diagnosis of psychosis drawn from an insurance database with a total of over 2.5 million people. Patients with psychosis and a diagnosis of Type II diabetes made up to 8 months prior to psychiatric observation were excluded. Records for 4,308 patients diagnosed with psychosis who received at least 60 days of antipsychotic treatment between April 1, 1996, and Dec. 31, 1997, were compared to 3,625 patients who received no such therapy. The risk associated with use of clozapine was the highest for any of the antipsychotic medications: It was more than seven times that of patients who were not given antipsychotic medication (7.44). The degree of risk for olanzapine and low-potency conventionals was similar, at somewhat more than three times that for no treatment (3.10 and 3.46 respectively). The risk for a high-potency conventional agent
was roughly double that of the risk for patients in the no treatment
group, at 2.13. Interestingly, the risk for risperidone, an atypical
antipsychotic agent, over 12 months of treatment was not significantly
different from the risk for untreated patients. |