Factors associated with weight gain during six-month olanzapine therapy

Objective To identify factors associated with weight gain during olanzapine therapy in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. Methods A post hoc analysis was conducted on data from the Chinese subgroup (n = 330) of a multinational/multiregional observational study. Results After 6 months of olanzapine therapy, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) weight change was (4. 5 ±4.0) kg and 145 (47. 2%) patients had clinically significant weight gain (CSWG, ≥7% increase from baseline). In these patients,94 (29.6%) had early CSWG after 2 months of therapy. Patients with early CSWG had a significantly greater overall weight gain at 6 months compared to patients without early CSWG (LS mean weight gain:7. 5 kg and 2. 7 kg, respectively, P<0. 001) . Ten factors were associated with treatment-emergent weight gain in a multivariate analysis: preoccupied thoughts with food (5. 1 kg) , evening snack consumption (5.4 kg) , taking an excessive amount of food to feel full (4.9 kg) , red meat consumption (5. 0 kg) , comfortably full sense when meal was finished (5. 0 kg) , amount of continuous walking per day (4. 9 kg) , the place where the patient took the majority of their meals (4. 9 kg) , social activity level and meal regularity (5. 6 kg) , gender and the regularity of eating (male 5. 1 kg, female 4. 5 kg,irregular eating 5. 0 kg). Conclusion The identified factors may assist with the early identification of candidates for weight control intervention during olanzapine therapy. Key words: Body mass index; Schizophrenia;  Antipsychotic agents;  Olanzapine