Abstract
Abnormalities in the glucose metabolism could be a main cause for the increased morbidity and mortality rates found in patients with bipolar disorders. However, the exact prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetic abnormalities is not clear. We conducted a prospective cohort study for metabolic measures during antipsychotic treatments in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (matSaB study) using the Japanese blood glucose monitoring guidance (Kusumi et al. 2011) in order to find undiagnosed hyperglycemia systematically as a routine clinical practice. In this study, we aimed to report a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data to quantify the frequency of glucose abnormalities in patients with bipolar disorder.
A total of 171 patients with bipolar disorder, who had not been diagnosed as diabetes prior to baseline screening and started one-year monitoring between April 2013 and March 2015, were enrolled at 45 sites in Japan. Participants included both in- and outpatients who started some new antipsychotics at baseline monitoring. The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of each site. All participants provided written informed consent after receiving a full explanation of the study protocol. This study was supported by grants from the Early-phase/Exploratory or International-standard Clinical Research by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.
Out of 171 patients, 10 (5.8%) met criteria for probable diabetic type, 20 (11.7%) for pre-diabetic type, and 141 (82.5%) for normal type. Individuals with pre-diabetic and probable diabetic type showed a significantly higher serum triglyceride than those with normal type. There was no significant difference in body mass index, total or HDL-cholesterol, or the frequency of family history of diabetes among the three types.
One-year follow-up study is underway to assess the detective power and usefulness of the blood glucose monitoring guidance for patients with bipolar disorder.