A 12-month follow-up study of treating overweight schizophrenic patients with aripiprazole

To investigate the feasibility of switching overweight schizophrenic patients to aripiprazole and to assess the impact of 12 months of aripiprazole treatment on weight in routine practice.

This was a non-controlled cohort study in overweight schizophrenic patients. Data were collected before treatment with aripiprazole was started and at 12-month follow-up.

A total of 53 patients were included; of these 55% continued using aripiprazole for 12 months. Aripiprazole treatment for 12 months (P = 0.027) and stopping clozapine or olanzapine treatment (P = 0.038) predicted weight loss (> or =3 kg). Patients receiving aripiprazole monotherapy (n = 16, mean -3.0 kg) had similar weight loss than patients receiving aripiprazole in addition to another antipsychotic drug (n = 13, mean -4.4 kg).

In routine practice once aripiprazole treatment was started, more than half of the patients remained on aripiprazole and most of them lost weight. Adding aripiprazole to clozapine gave similar weight loss as monotherapy with aripiprazole.