Anti-Psychotic Drug Weight Gain Prevented

Canadian researchers say weight gain induced by the use of anti-psychotic drugs can be avoided through a specially designed weight control program.

Researchers supervised by psychiatrist Marie-Josee Poulin and kinesiologist Angelo Tremblay of the University of Laval in Quebec City tested their weight control program’s effectiveness on a group of 59 patients suffering from schizophrenia and psycho-affective or bipolar disorders using anti-psychotic drugs for almost three years.

Patients were invited to attend a 90-minute educational session about healthy eating and physical activity and participated in two one-hour workouts weekly for 18 months. The researchers compared them to a control group of 51 sedentary or moderately active patients also taking anti-psychotic medication.

The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, found control group, subjects’ weight, waist size and body mass index increased on average more than 4 percent from the beginning to the end of the study. Their levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides also went up 15 percent and 12 percent respectively.

However, the subjects in the weight control program saw average weight, waist size and body mass index decrease by 4 percent, while good cholesterol levels went up 21 percent, bad cholesterol went down 14 percent and triglycerides levels decreased by 26 percent.