Fig 2. Effects of treatment with the antipsychotic drugs risperidone and paliperidone on fasting glucose levels and during the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test.

Adult female rats (n = 8–9 per group) were administered an acute injection of drug vehicle, (A) risperidone (0.1, 0.5, 1, 0.5, 1, 2 or 6 mg/kg, s.c) or (B) paliperidone (0.1, 0.5, 1, 0.5, 1, 2 or 6 mg/kg, s.c). Plasma glucose levels were measured before antipsychotic administration in animals fasted overnight at baseline (= Time 0), and then thirty minutes after antipsychotic treatment. Upon completion of this measurement, animals were challenged with the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (1 mg/ml/kg of glucose). Plasma glucose levels were recorded every fifteen minutes for a 2 hour period. Cumulative amounts of plasma glucose (group means ± SEM) were added up and presented as the “area under the curve”, evident in the inset figure. Asterix (*) indicates statistically different from control rats, p < 0.05.