Changes of Body Weight and Metabolic Syndrome in Psychiatric Inpatients / 대한정신약물학회지

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the development of metabolic syndrome, changes in body weight and metabolic syndrome parameters (waist circumference, serum glucose and lipids, blood pressure), and effects of psychotropic agents in psychiatric inpatients being treated with psychotropic agents. METHODS: In all, 146 patients who had been admitted to a psychiatric isolated ward for more than 1 month between August 2012 and May 2014 were included in this study. During hospitalization, levels of triglyceride, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and serum glucose, and blood pressure, height, body weight, and waist circumference were regularly measured. For obtaining data on laboratory tests, physical examination and demographic and clinical characteristics, we reviewed patients' medical records. RESULTS: After using psychotropic agents for 3 months, body mass index increased significantly and HDL levels decreased significantly. Of 119 patients without metabolic syndrome at baseline, 15 (12.61%) patients developed a this syndrome after 3 months. Among psychotropic agents, quetiapine most largely increased the number of patients who meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome (17.9%), and this change was significantly larger than that of aripiprazole (p=0.031). Carbamazepine significantly increased waist circumference. Duloxetine and lamotrigine significantly increased triglyceride levels. Olanzapine, aripiprazole, mirtazapine, duloxetine and valproic acid significantly decreased HDL levels. Futher, olanzapine and valproic acid significantly increased body mass index. Fluoxetine significantly decreased body mass index. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that at least 1 in 10 patients using psychotropic agents develop metabolic syndrome within a relatively short time; this finding emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Because abnormality of lipid parameters was prominent in early phase of treatment, clinicians should monitor these levels carefully. In addition, some psychotropic agents could affect body weight and metabolic syndrome parameters and thus clinicians should be aware of this changes in patients using psychotropic agents. Main limitation of this study is high drop-out rate (74%), and this could make the result underestimate.

Drug-drug Interactions between Psychotropic Agents and Other Drugs in Physically Ill Patients: Experience of Consultation-liason in Korea University Hospital

Polypharmacotherapy, both psychotropic and nonpsychotropic, is widespread in various situations including psychiatric hospitals and general hospitals. As the clinical practice of using more than one drug at a time increase, the clinical is faced with ever-increasing number of potential drug interactions. Although many interactions have little clinical significances, some may interfere with treatment or even be life-threatening. The objective of this review is evaluation for drug-drug interactions often encountered in psychiatric consultation. Drug interactions can be grouped into two principal subdivisions : pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic. These subgroups serve to focus attention on possible sites of interaction as a drug moves from the site of administration and absorption to its site of action. Pharmacokinetic processes are those that include transport to and from the receptor site and consist of absorption, distribution on body tissue, plasma protein binding, metabolism, and excretion. Pharmacodynamic interactions occur at biologically active sites. In psychiatric consultation, these two subdivisions of drug interactions between psychotropic drugs and other drugs are likely to happen. We gathered informations of the drugs used in physically ill patients who are consulted to psychiatric department in Korea University Hospital. And we reviewed the related literatures about the drug-drug interactions between psychotropic drugs and other drugs.