The Effect of Psychiatric Drugs on Blood Glucose and Lipid in Patients

Psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent among clients referred to primary care and general practitioners. Given that the main core of treatment in these patients is medication, these psychiatric drugs can cause long-term complications such as a decrease or increase in blood glucose and lipid. In this review study, the effects of these drugs on blood glucose and lipid in Iran have been addressed. It should be noted that blood glucose and lipid levels can be affected by several factors including environmental factors, geography, race, ethnicity, and even skin color. Moreover, many relevant studies approved the relationships among these variables repeatedly. In this review study, international databases of Web of Knowledge, ISI, PubMed, Google Scholar, SID, and Noormags databases (as national ones) were searched up to the end of 2019. Finally, eight studies out of 30 were investigated. The Total number of subjects studied in this study was 824 in 8 articles, which included six clinical trials, one descriptive study, and one case-control study. In general, in the present review study, most studies indicate the increasing effect of serotonin-dopamine antagonist antipsychotics on blood glucose (so clozapine and then risperidone, from this drug class, have a greater effect on the development of this complication), as well as the effects of dopamine antagonist antipsychotics on lipid profile in patients. Comparing clomipramine and fluoxetine, clomipramine increased blood glucose and lipids, but fluoxetine did not have these complications.