Poor physical health and shorter life expectancy often follows from mental illness. If the disorder starts in childhood/adolescence, the risk of this outcome is even higher. Second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are suspected to increase cardiovascular risk factors through the development of the metabolic syndrome.

We investigated all the aspects of the metabolic syndrome in drug-naive youth, over a period of 12 months of treatment with SGAs.

This study examines drug-naive youth in their first year of treatment with SGAs, and the possible development of markers of the metabolic syndrome, in a naturalistic setting. We also look at aspects of the patient's disease and environment that may predict which patients are the most at risk for these metabolic derangements.

Thirty-five drug-naive adolescents were recruited after their contact with the Psychosis Team at Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Odense, Denmark. Measurements were taken at different times over the course of their first year of treatment. The markers included, among others: body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, as well as high density, low density and total cholesterol. Factors of the patients’ lifestyle and development were recorded as well.

The results will be presented at the EPA March 2016 in Madrid.

This is, to our knowledge, the first study to include all of the aforementioned aspects in drug-naive adolescents over a 12-month period. Because of this, it may provide us with a unique insight into how, and in which patients, these metabolic changes develop.