“People should think twice before they actually prescribe the medications,” Dr. Correll of Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y., said researchers had saved their blood work for future study of the molecular basis of the different drugs’ metabolic effects. Rapoport, chief of the child psychiatry branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, said in an interview. “It’s by far the best documentation of not just weight gain and metabolic changes but also suggesting there might be differences among the drugs,” Dr. Rapoport, another expert who was not involved in the research. And because it is also the largest study of first-time users of the drugs, whether children or adults, it provided an opportunity to analyze the cause and severity of near-term side effects.Īs a result, the study goes further than previous research in distinguishing varying metabolic effects among the four drugs, according to Dr. The study, financed by federal grants, is the largest yet published on childhood use of the drugs. A 2008 study found that patients under 19 years old accounted for 15 percent of antipsychotic drug use in 2005, compared with 7 percent in 1996. Their use by children and teenagers has been rising steadily. The drugs are prescribed for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and a broad range of less serious psychological conditions. The study’s authors, and an accompanying JAMA editorial, called for closer monitoring of patients taking the drugs, as well as additional long-term studies. Among them, Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly & Company, showed the most severe effects on weight and metabolism. And while all four caused weight gain, there were differences in the extent of the side effects. The four drugs in the study, the most popular antipsychotic medications, are industry blockbusters, with combined sales of $12.7 billion last year. Goodman, who was not involved in the study, said the speed and magnitude of the effects found in the study were greater than previously reported findings he said were made possible by looking exclusively at new patients. “The magnitude is stunning,” he said.Īlthough the drugs’ influence on weight and metabolism had been previously detected, Dr. Goodman, head of a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on the drugs last summer and chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan. “The degree of weight gain is alarming,” said Dr. The patients, ages 4 to 19, added an average of one to one-and-a-half pounds a week. The study, to be published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 257 young children and adolescents in New York City and on Long Island added 8 to 15 percent to their weight after taking the pills for less than 12 weeks. Young children and adolescents who take the newest generation of antipsychotic medications risk rapid weight gain and metabolic changes that could lead to diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses, according to the biggest study yet of first-time users of the drugs.
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