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Category: Project

Description: Many studies have focused on weight-related outcomes during treatment with antipsychotic medications (APDs) (Alonso-Pedrero et al. 2019), whereas only limited data is available on the wider regulation of appetite, eating behaviour, food intake, and food preferences. The APDs-related weight gain is associated mainly with the blockage of histamine H1 receptors, but also their influence on dopamine and serotonin receptors (Kroeze et al. 2003; Kim et al. 2007; Roerig et al. 2011). Newly developed research, drug delivery methods and treatment approaches are being investigated in literature in order to mask the drug-related weight gain and metabolic effects (Pahwa et al. 2021), which is considered to be one of the most challenging concerns for using APDs, specially, the second generation (SGAs) (Coccurello and Moles 2010). It has been shown in literature that SGAs might affect the appetite and eating patterns of patients with psychiatric disorders (Elman et al. 2006). For example, a study in patients on clozapine found increased craving for carbohydrates and fast foods (Garriga et al. 2019). Another study reported higher food craving scores in patients treated with typical- compared to patients on atypical-antipsychotics (Abbas and Liddle 2013). Binge eating was also seen to be increased in schizophrenic patients treated with olanzapine and clozapine (Kluge et al. 2007). In order to collate evidence from available studies, we aim to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate changes in appetite and eating behaviour in patients on SGAs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the effect of SGAs on eating-related outcomes including eating behaviour, cognitions and emotions.