Adjunctive Low-dose Metformin in Patients With Schizophrenia and Metabolic Abnormalities

Summary

Metformin has been used for alleviating metabolic abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia. Until now, the lowest dose of metformin to treat metabolic abnormalities in clozapine-treated patients is 1000 mg/d. The aim of this study was to determine whether a lower dosage of metformin, such as 500 mg/d, is effective for improving metabolic profiles in clozapine-treated patients with pre-existing metabolic abnormalities. Methods: In this 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, metformin 500 mg/d or 1000 mg/d or a placebo was prescribed to clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia having pre-existing metabolic abnormalities. The recruited patients underwent physical and laboratory evaluations at week-4, week-8, and week-12.

Timeline

Start

2013-05

Primary completion

2015-01

Completion

2015-01

Publications

• Chiu CC, Lu ML, Huang MC, Chen PY, Lin YK, Lin SK, Chen CH. Effects of Low Dose Metformin on Metabolic Traits in Clozapine-Treated Schizophrenia Patients: An Exploratory Twelve-Week Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study. PLoS One. 2016 Dec 14;11(12):e0168347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168347. eCollection 2016.

Drugs

Indications