Is Diabetes Linked To Antipsychotic Use In Children?

A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association Psychiatry last year suggests that children and adolescents prescribed antipsychotic medications may be at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville studied children and youths between the ages of 6 and 24, who were a part of Tennessee's Medicaid program from 1996 through 2007.
In the analysis of the findings, 28,858 children and youths were prescribed antipsychotic drugs while 14,429 control patients were prescribed alternative psychotic medication.
The antipsychotic medications are typically used to treat patients with schizophrenia and dementia, but can also be prescribed for aggression, hallucinations, and agitation, as well as nausea, vomiting, and hiccuping.
The Vanderbilt researchers discovered that the prescribing rate for these drugs for children and youth is increasing, but there has been no research to make a link between the drugs and diabetes.
The findings found that there were 106 cases of type 2 diabetes in the follow-up period, the mean age was 16.7 years, and 37% of patients were male.
Those who had taken antipsychotic drugs had a three times increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the first year of follow-up.
The authors wrote, "In this cohort of children and youth who had recently initiated use of an antipsychotic or a control antipsychotic drug, antipsychotic users had a risk of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes three-times greater than that for propensity score-matched controls."
They added, "The excess risk occurred within the first year of antipsychotic use, increased with cumulative antipsychotic dose, and was present for children 6 to 17 years of age. The increased risk persisted for up to 1 year following cessation of antipsychotic use."
Researchers found it interesting that the risk of diabetes was present in the first year of antipsychotic use.
"Cases of early-onset antipsychotic-associated diabetes have been reported for adults. In one series, the majority of cases occurred within 6 months of drug initiation," the authors reported.
"Although there are fewer case reports in the literature for children, early-onset cases also have been described. Further study of the pathophysiology of antipsychotic-associated diabetes is needed."
Reference: Medical News Today
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