Are there different neural mechanisms responsible for three stages of weight gain development in anti-psychotic therapy: temporally based hypothesis

Abstract

Weight gain as a result of atypical anti-psychotic treatment is a common issue with different atypical anti-psychotic treatments causing differing magnitudes of weight gain. Although differing amounts of weight gain result from different atypical agents little is known about the temporal course of weight gain in anti-psychotic treatment. Specifically is the time course of weight gain comparable across different agents. Therefore this article reviews the temporal course of weight gain for three common atypical anti-psychotics namely; clozapine, olanzapine and risperidone. It is evident that all three of these agents exhibit similar although at distinct magnitudes temporal courses of weight gain. That is an initial rapid increase from baseline to 3 months (stage 1), a steady increase from 3 months to 18 months (stage 2) and a plateau after this point (stage 3) with continued anti-psychotic treatment. It is postulated that each of these stages of weight gain result from distinct neural mechanisms. The hypothesized neural correlates for each stage of weight gain are reviewed and discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.