A Case Report of a Patient whose Obesity and Diabetes were Induced by Atypical Antipsychotics and Improved by Switching to Amisulpride / 대한정신약물학회지

ABSTRACT

Newer atypical antipsychotics have many benefits compared with conventional antipsychotics. However it has been known that atypical antipsychotics are associated with drug-induced weight gain and dibetes mellitus. Obesity and diabetes mellitus may be problematic side effects to patients with schizophrenia because they can cause many medical problems and also drug compliance which is important to prognosis can be reduced by those adverse effects. We present here a male patient, aged 26 years old, who was treated with risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine subsequently and gained weight by 32 kilograms (almost 50% increase) during four years long treatment and diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus. We switched the antipsychotics to amisulpride at the day of admission and increased the dosage to 800 mg. At discharge after 34 days after admission, his psychotic symptoms were considerably improved and blood glucose level at fasting time was stabilized within acceptable range. And he also lost weight by 5 kilograms after admission. Amisulpride would be a relatively appropriate choice of drug in patient with atypical antipsychotics induced weight gain and/or diabetes mellitus.