On the 2025 APA Annual Assembly in Los Angeles, Psychiatric Occasions sat down with Amir Meftah, MD, a PGY-2 resident at One Brooklyn Well being Interfaith Medical Heart, to debate methods for addressing the metabolic challenges related to antipsychotic use and the way clinicians can higher assist their sufferers.1
Meftah and colleagues performed a literature evaluate to establish a possible position for GLP-1 agonists in addressing antipsychotic metabolic points. Particularly, the investigators checked out olanzapine and clozapine within the evaluate. Meftah is presenting the information on the APA Annual Assembly.
“These are the 2 best antipsychotics,” Meftah mentioned of clozapine and olanzapine. “However plenty of sufferers are hesitant to take them, and it’s very exhausting for clinicians to place sufferers on these drugs due to the metabolic burden.”
Antipsychotics are recognized to extend the chance of weight achieve, glucose dysregulation, and different cardiometabolic issues—usually making prescribers and sufferers alike cautious of their use regardless of their efficacy in treatment-resistant schizophrenia, he mentioned.2 Meftah famous that whereas pharmaceutical firms have explored adjunctive methods to mitigate these points, most interventions have centered on stopping additional weight achieve relatively than reversing it.
GLP-1 receptor agonists could symbolize a significant shift, Meftah informed Psychiatric Occasions. “This class of medicine helps cut back weight and enhance glycemic management and lipid profiles like LDL,” Meftah defined. Initially developed to deal with kind 2 diabetes, GLP-1 agonists resembling liraglutide and exenatide are actually being explored in psychiatry for his or her potential to offset antipsychotic-induced metabolic results.
Though negative effects are at all times a consideration, Meftah described the opposed occasions linked to GLP-1 agonists as manageable, given their efficacy. “The most typical negative effects are nausea, vomiting, and GI signs,” he mentioned within the interview. “However they’re normally dose dependent and transient.” He additionally famous that these results can usually be mitigated with supportive care, and within the research reviewed, no sufferers discontinued remedy resulting from these negative effects.
As curiosity in metabolic psychiatry grows, Meftah’s insights add to the increasing dialogue on how finest to steadiness efficacy with security in antipsychotic remedy.
References
1. Lawrence J, Meftah A, Efremoff S, et al. Potential of Glp-1 agonists in mitigating metabolic negative effects related to clozapine or olanzapine remedy: literature evaluate. Introduced on the 2025 American Psychiatric Affiliation Annual Assembly; Might 17 -21, 2025; Los Angeles, California.
2. Miller B. Antipsychotic Polypharmacy and Metabolic Dysfunction Danger in People With Schizophrenia. Psychiatric Occasions. 2023;40(12):30.
