Antipsychotics and weight gain. What are effective interventions?

Up to 80% of people being treated with antipsychotics suffer from medication-induced weight gain and young people experiencing a first episode of psychosis are particularly susceptible to rapid and pronounced weight gain. Weight gain has become a major concern in the treatment of psychosis because it may stop people sticking with their treatment and is, in itself, associated with a reduced quality of life, social stigma and greater morbidity (illness) and mortality. A recent review of interventions to reduce weight gain in schizophrenia concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support the use of drugs to prevent weight gain, so a team of researchers from Melbourne looked into non-pharmacological alternatives. A review of previous studies concluded that individual and group interventions, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and nutritional counselling were all effective in reducing or slowing down antipsychotic-induced weight gain.

Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario ... [et al] - Non-pharmacological management of antipsychotic-induced weight gain: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials British Journal of Psychiatry August 2008, 193(2), 101-107