Metabolic side effects of antipsychotic drugs in the medium‑ to long‑term treatment of schizophrenia



Metabolic side effects of antipsychotic drugs in the medium‑ to long‑term treatment of schizophrenia: a systematic review and network meta‑analysis

Funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, FKZ 01KG1904).

This project investigates how antipsychotics differ in their metabolic side effects during medium- to long-term treatment of schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics are a cornerstone of schizophrenia treatment, used in both acute treatment and relapse prevention. However, the differences in medium- to long-term metabolic side effects between antipsychotics are not well understood. These metabolic side effects include weight gain and disturbances in lipid and glucose metabolism.

The network meta-analysis method allows for estimation of effect sizes for all possible drug comparisons, regardless of whether they were directly compared in a trial, offering a comprehensive review of all available evidence.

The systematic review and network meta-analysis protocol was pre-registered in Prospero under CRD42020175414 (see here) and published in BMC Systematic Reviews:

Schneider-Thoma, Johannes; Kapfhammer, Angelika; Wang, Dongfang; Bighelli, Irene; Siafis, Spyridon; Wu, Hui et al. (2021): Metabolic side effects of antipsychotic drugs in individuals with schizophrenia during medium- to long-term treatment: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In: Systematic Reviews, 10(1), p. 214. DOI: 10.1186/s13643-021-01760-z (Link).

Currently, the publication paper with the results of the network meta-analysis is in preparation.

Representatives of the association "BASTA - das Bündnis für psychisch erkrankte Menschen" are participating in the project.

The project was primarily conducted by Angelika Burschinski and Dr. Johannes Schneider-Thoma, contact: angelika.burschinski@tum.de

Supervision: Professor Stefan Leucht

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