Choice of Antipsychotics Influence Metabolic Abnormalities in Patients With Schizophrenia:Presented at APA

A prospective trial comparing 3 antipsychotic drugs revealed that clozapine is most likely to produce metabolic changes that point the way to metabolic syndrome.

However, clozapine was also most likely to control violent behaviour and metabolic consequences were most apparent for African American, researchers stated here at the 162nd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

Menahem Krakowski, MD, New York University, New York, and Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York, presented the findings of a randomised, double-blind study on May 20.

The study included 110 inpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were randomised to receive clozapine (n = 34), olanzapine (n = 31), or haloperidol (n = 28).

At study entry, 93 patients gave blood samples for measuring fasting glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides and had at least 1 more sample collected during the 12 weeks of the study. The patients had a history of physical assaults.

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Depression often untreated in black heart patients

African Americans with heart disease are as likely to suffer from depression as their white counterparts, but they are less likely to be on medication for it, a new study suggests.

The study of 864 adults with coronary heart disease found that 35 percent of African Americans and 27 percent of whites had symptoms of depression. Yet black patients were less than half as likely to be on an antidepressant medication.

The findings are important, the researchers say, because depression in people with heart disease has been linked to a two- to four-fold higher risk of complications.

Studies have found that depressed heart disease patients have higher risks of a heart attack or stroke, and may die earlier than those without depression.

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