Diabetes mellitus and antipsychotic treatment in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Objective: Treatment-emergent diabetes has been reported during exposure to conventional and atypical antipsychotics. This retrospective cohort study explored the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD) to determine hazard ratios of diabetes for patients prescribed antipsychotics.

Methods: A Cox proportional hazard regression model using age, gender, and obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) was used to determine the hazard ratio (HR) of diabetes development in conventional antipsychotic (N = 59,089), atypical antipsychotic (N = 9053), individual antipsychotic, and general patient population cohorts (N = 1,491,548).

Results: Compared with the general GPRD patient population, patients exposed to conventional or atypical antipsychotics had a higher risk of developing diabetes (atypical antipsychotic cohort: HR = 2.9, CI = 2.0-4.4; and conventional antipsychotic cohort: HR = 1.9, CI = 1.6-2.3). The risk of developing diabetes during thioridazine, risperidone, or olanzapine treatment was significantly higher compared with the general GPRD patient population.

Conclusion: Consistent with other epidemiology studies, this study supports an increased risk of developing diabetes during treatment with antipsychotics.