Adjunctive Low-dose Metformin in Patients With Schizophrenia and Metabolic Abnormalities
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
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.