[Blood glucose in chronic schizophrenic patients treated with antipsychotics].

OBJECTIVE

There is some evidence that the treatment with new ("atypical") antipsychotics is associated with a higher frequency of type 2-diabetes mellitus.

AIM

In this study the blood glucose levels of consecutively admitted inpatients with chronic schizophrenia were investigated.

METHODS

The base blood glucose levels of 177 consecutively admitted chronic schizophrenic patients were evaluated.

RESULTS

After long-term treatment (mean duration: 17.8 +/- 8.7 years [range 5 - 44 years]) 24.3 % of the investigated patients showed elevated base blood glucose levels (> or = 126 mg/dl). The proportion of patients with elevated blood glucose levels among the schizophrenic patients treated with antipsychotics was significantly higher than the proportion of diabetics in the corresponding age groups in the general population. The comparison of different groups of antipsychotics revealed that those patients treated with conventional neuroleptics and non-dibenzodiazepine derivates (i. e. risperidone) had a lower risk of developing diabetes mellitus than those also receiving dibenzodiazepine derivates (like clozapine, olanzapine).

CONCLUSION

Our data showed that schizophrenic patients treated with antipsychotics 5 years or longer had elevated blood glucose levels more frequently than the general population.