Antipsychotic drugs cause rapid weight gain, abnormal eating behavior

[Guest guest]

Antipsychotic drugs cause rapid weight gain, abnormal eating behavior

March 05, 2007 by: David Gutierrez

http://www.newstarget.com/021672.html

 

NewsTarget) Researchers may have discovered why certain antipsychotic

medications, such as those used to treat schizophrenia, lead to extreme weight

gain.

A study published in the " Proceedings of the National Academy Of Sciences "

suggests that these drugs increase the activity of the enzyme AMPK in the parts

of the brain that regulate eating behavior. Patients taking the antipsychotic

drugs olanzapine (sold under the brand name Zyprexa by Eli Lilly and Co.) and

clozapine (sold as Clorazil by Novartis AG) have been known to gain so much

weight that they are placed at increased risk for obesity-related disorders such

as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

 

" Their use has been hampered primarily by the fact that for some of them

there is this horrible gain, largely due to just eating too much from increased

appetite, " said Dr. Solomon Snyder, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins

School of Medicine, where the study was based.

 

" It's a big increase and it occurs with very little doses of the drug, " he

said.

 

The results of the study, which involved experimentation on mice, suggest

that the antipsychotics interfere with the protein histamine, leading to an

increase in AMPK activity. Histamine is an important actor in local immune

responses -- including allergy symptoms -- that has long been suspected to play

a role

in controlling weight.

 

Snyder expressed hope that the new study's findings could aid in the

development of antipsychotic drugs to do not lead to weight gain.

 

" Unfortunately, Zyprexa, which everybody agrees is the best therapeutic

agent, gives the worst weight gain, along with clozapine, the parent drug in the

class, " he said.

 

But consumer advocate Mike Adams, Mike Adams, author of " How to Halt Diabetes

in 25 Days, " instead took the results as a sign of the inherent risks of

psychiatric drugs.

 

" We've known for a long time that antipsychotic drugs cause severe blood

sugar imbalances and even increase the risk of diabetes, " Adams said

 

" Now scientists are pinpointing the biochemical mechanism by which these

drugs cause massive weight gain, an average of 22 pounds in the first year.

That's

enough to make anyone depressed -- which, of course, often leads to stronger,

more dangerous drugs being prescribed. As a result, antipsychotic drugs

actually create their own repeat revenue by keeping patients depressed and

overweight. "