Cross-sectional study antipsychotic-induced cardiometabolic toxicity
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A cross-sectional study to investigate antipsychotic-induced cardiometabolic toxicity
IRAS ID
188107
Contact name
Munir Pirmohamed
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Patients with schizophrenia and mental illness use drugs called anti-psychotics to control their symptoms. These drugs might cause patients to become overweight and develop diabetes and heart disease, sometimes called the “metabolic syndrome”. It is not understood why these drugs might have this effect. It has been suggested that some of these diseases could be due to the lifestyle of the patients and genetic susceptibility but even this does not explain a markedly shorter life expectancy (20%) and the high rates of heart disease versus the general population. One theory is the drugs themselves may have an inflammatory effect on adipose(fatty) tissue, causing insulin resistance, which is a state of pre-diabetes. This pilot study aims to collect blood and urine of patients who do not yet have metabolic syndrome on certain high and low risk anti-psychotic drugs, and fatty tissue from patients on high risk drugs undergoing routine surgery, to compare markers of inflammation between these patients and healthy volunteers, to see if there is a difference and the nature of that difference. DNA will be collected for later analysis to identify genetic links. Data will be collected on lifestyle, medical and family history of the patients to explore any confounding lifestyle factors or genetic links. Patients will be identified by their psychiatric team or surgeon and recruited from hospitals and clinics. Healthy volunteers will be recruited from Liverpool University, a database held by the Royal Liverpool Hospital, and from surgical lists for routine surgery. The data on inflammation and other blood and urine markers will be analysed to explore the relationship between anti-psychotics and insulin resistance, and inflammation as a possible cause for this relationship. This will be analysed alongside the medical and lifestyle data to identify any effect this may have, such as predisposing factors in some patients.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0775
Date of REC Opinion
10 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion