Why carry out this study?

The metabolic side effects of aripiprazole and olanzapine were reported previously in patients and healthy volunteers. Our clinical trial is unique as we administered five doses of both drugs in a crossover design and we additionally associated the metabolic effects with genetic polymorphisms, which is also a novelty.

The hypothesis of the study was that genetic biomarkers may predict metabolic side effects induced by aripiprazole and olanzapine.

What was learned from the study?

Both antipsychotics have significant metabolic effects in acute treatment and several genetic polymorphisms are potential biomarkers to predict these changes.

These antipsychotics, especially olanzapine, induce metabolic changes even after five doses. These changes seem to be associated with genetic biomarkers, which ideally can be used to predict them for each individual before treatment initiation.