A Systematic Review of Metformin in Treatment of Anti-Psychotics Induced Weight Gain

Background:
Antipsychotic drugs are used in treatment of
psychological and neurological disorders. The major side
effect of these drugs is weight gain. Metformin has been
evaluated to prevent or reduce weight gain. Our aim of
the study is to conduct a systematic review on metformin
for the treatment of anti-psychotics induced weight gain.Main Body of the Abstract:
The primary objective of this review was to
evaluate the safety and efficacy of metformin for the
treatment of antipsychotics induced weight gain. A
systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted
with various articles collected in source of original
articles through databases like PubMed, Embase,
MEDLINE, BMC psychiatry etc. Articles associated with

metformin in weight loss for patients with anti-
psychotics induced weight gain were included and

articles with other interventions were excluded. As a
result of total of 257 articles were screened in total and
33 articles were systemically reviewed andarticles were
meta-analysed. The risk of bias assessment was done

using Cochrane’s Risk of bias assessment tool. Meta-
analysis was carried out. The forest plot was made using

RevMan Software (Version 5.3; Cochrane
Collaboration). The studies assessed the effectiveness of
the metformin when compared to the control
intervention at several time points. The differences
between pre and post measurements were calculated in
each arm and differences across treatment and control
group was taken as the measure. Heterogeneity was
quantified by I
2
statistic.Conclusion:
The systematic review and meta-analysis concludes
that metformin is highly effective in the treatment of
patient with anti-psychotics induced weight gain and safe
in long term use up to 6 months as it was able to reducethe weight of patients on metformin ranging from 3 to 5
kgs.