National trends in metabolic risk of psychiatric inpatients in the United States during the atypical antipsychotic era

Although the cardiometabolic effects of atypical antipsychotics have been well-described in clinical samples, less is known about the longer-term impacts of these treatments. We report rates of metabolic syndrome in a na-tionally representative sample of U.S. adult inpatients 1993-2018 admitted for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (n = 1,785,314), any mental health disorder (n = 8,378,773), or neither (n = 14,458,616) during a period of widespread atypical antipsychotic use. Metabolic syndrome, derived from additional diagnoses, was defined as three or more of hypertension, dyslipidemia, type II diabetes, hyperglycemia, and overweight or obese. Using an ecological age and period design, a 4-level period variable was constructed to proxy for atypical antipsychotic exposure as the minimum of age minus 20 years or the calendar year minus 1997 in accord with the disease course for schizophrenia-spectrum illness and the market share of atypical antipsychotics in the U.S. Logistic regression models, adjusted for age, year, and exposure main effects, estimated odds ratios (ORs) of metabolic syndrome. Relative to other mental health or other discharges, schizophrenia-spectrum discharges had an elevated risk for metabolic syndrome regardless of potential atypical antipsychotic exposure (OR = 1.46; 95 % CI, 1.30-1.64). For schizophrenia-spectrum discharges, periods of potential atypical antipsychotic exposure conferred additional metabolic syndrome risk OR = 1.21; 95 % CI, 1.04-1.41 for exposures of 1-2 years, OR = 1.29; 95 % CI, 1.13-1.46 for 3-7 years, OR = 1.27; 95 % CI, 1.12-1.44 for 8-12 years, and OR = 1.10; 95 % CI 0.98-1.24 for >12 years. In summary, cardiometabolic disease and related risks were elevated among a na-tionally representative sample of adult inpatients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders during a period of pervasive atypical antipsychotic use.