---
title: "Psych News Alert: Metformin May Normalize Antipsychotic-Induced Lipid Imbalance in People With Schizophrenia"
description: Patients with schizophrenia who take antipsychotics commonly experience serious adverse metabolic effects including dyslipidemia—a condit...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/cardiovascularsystem_112083296-Jun-24-2025-10-37-49-8659-PM.jpg
---

 1/29/16 12:00 AM

# Metformin May Normalize Antipsychotic-Induced Lipid Imbalance in People With Schizophrenia

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Patients with schizophrenia who take antipsychotics commonly experience serious adverse metabolic effects including dyslipidemia—a condition characterized by abnormally high levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), or triglycerides, as well as abnormally low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). A [study](http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2015221a.html) published this week in *Molecular Psychiatry* now suggests that the type 2 diabetes medication metformin may be able to help normalize lipid levels in this patient population.

Although there is evidence to suggest metformin decreases triglycerides and LDL-C in patients with diabetes, it was unknown whether the medication would offer similar benefits to schizophrenia patients with antipsychotic-induced dyslipidemia who have weight gain and/or have developed insulin resistance after antipsychotic treatment.

A team of researchers from the United States and China pooled data from two randomized, placebo-controlled trials, including 201 schizophrenia patients aged 18 to 40 who had experienced dyslipidemia within the first year of being treated with one of four antipsychotics: clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, or sulpiride. The patients were randomly assigned to take 500 mg of metformin or placebo twice a day for six months. (Participants who were taking an antipsychotic at the time of trial start remained on the medication until the trial’s completion.)

After 24 weeks of treatment, 25.3% of patients in the metformin group had dyslipidemia (defined by LDL-C greater than or equal to 3.37 mmol/L) compared with 64.8% in the placebo group. In contrast, 54.2% of the patients in the placebo group who had a normal LDL-C levels at baseline developed dyslipidemia over the course of the trial compared with 14.3% taking metformin.

“Metformin treatment had [a] significant effect on not only controlling weight gain, insulin, and insulin resistance, … but also significantly improving the altered level of lipids, including LDL-C, HDL-C, total cholesterol, and triglycerides in blood,” the authors wrote. The findings suggest “that the addition of metformin to antipsychotics is a potential treatment to attenuate dyslipidemia in patients with schizophrenia,” they concluded.

For related information, see the *Psychiatric News* article “[Coding for Coverage for Lipid Testing](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2015.6a19).”

(Image: CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock)

[clozapine](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/clozapine), [olanzapine](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/olanzapine), [risperidone](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/risperidone), [dyslipidemia](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/dyslipidemia), [sulpiride](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/sulpiride), [cholesterol](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/cholesterol), [schizophenia](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/schizophenia), [antipsychotics](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/antipsychotics), [Metformin](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/metformin)

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