The Effects of an Educational Intervention on Antipsychotic‐Induced Weight Gain

Abstract

The results indicate that a structured educational intervention might have a positive effect on antipsychotic-induced weight gain among patients with schizophrenia.

Lifestyle Interventions for Adults With Serious Mental Illness: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The rest of the studies specified medication inclusion criteria that were either restricted to monotherapy with one antipsychotic medication at the time of enrollment (26,27) or combination treatment of one antipsychotic with other psychotropics (16,20,21,24,25,31,32,36). Three studies restricted their intervention to patients taking olanzapine (17,19,22). Only one study was designed to test the weight loss effects of a lifestyle intervention among patients who switched from olanzapine to risperidone (19).…”

“…Intervention formats featured individual sessions (29) and group sessions (16,17,19,21,23,26–28,31–34,36,37), with some integrating both approaches (20,22,24,25,38). Interventions were delivered by a range of staff, including registered nurses, exercise physiologists, registered dieticians, trained fitness instructors, case managers, and master's- and doctoral-level health care practitioners.…”

“…We used multiple databases and manual searches to reduce this possibility. Another limitation is that very few studies examined and controlled for the confounding effects of antipsychotic medications on health outcomes (19,22). More rigorous studies are needed to control for these confounding medication effects.…”

Assessment of physical activity in middle-aged and older adults with schizophrenia

“…Although weight control programs have been tested in this population, few experimentally evaluate PA interventions, and many only address diet and nutrition (McDevitt et al, 2005;Littrell et al, 2003;McCreadie et al, 2005;Evans et al, 2005;Menza et al, 2004). When PA is addressed, studies typically measure it using simple self-reports of time engaged in PA, usually walking (Vreeland et al, 2003).…”

A dedicated nurse-led service for antipsychotic-induced weight gain

“…Pharmacological interventions are not recommended as suitable for the majority of patients (Werneke et al, 2002). A systematic search of Medline and PubMed revealed several instances of non-pharmacological management of antipsychoticinduced weight gain in people with severe mental illness (Ball et al 2001;Umbricht et al, 2001;Littrell et al, 2003). Littrell et al randomised 70 patients treated with olanzapine to receive either psychoeducation or no intervention.…”