Impact of cariprazine on body weight and blood pressure among adults with bipolar I disorder, schizophrenia, or major depressive disorder in a real-world setting.

backgroundAtypical antipsychotics are a common treatment for serious mental illness, but many are associated with adverse effects, including weight gain and cardiovascular issues, and real-world experience may differ from clinical trial data. Cariprazine has previously demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile in clinical trials. Here, we evaluated the effects of cariprazine on body weight and blood pressure for bipolar I disorder (BP-I), schizophrenia, or as adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) using real-world data.

methodsSymphony Health's Integrated Dataverse® with electronic medical record access (3/1/2015-10/31/2018) was used to identify adults (≥ 18 years) diagnosed with BP-I depression, BP-I mania/mixed, schizophrenia, or MDD, with ≥ 2 cariprazine dispensings (first dispensing = index) and continuous clinical activity for ≥ 12 months pre-index (baseline) and ≥ 3 months post-index. The on-treatment period spanned from index to cariprazine discontinuation, exposure to another atypical or long-acting injectable antipsychotic, or end of clinical activity/data availability. Outcomes included estimated annual linear trajectories for weight, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) during baseline and on treatment. Changes were estimated using linear mixed-effects models fitted over measurements pre-index and on treatment; 95% CIs were derived from nonparametric bootstrap procedures.

resultsThe body weight analysis included 612 patients (BP-I, n = 331 [BP-I depression, n = 172; BP-I mania/mixed, n = 159]; schizophrenia, n = 75; MDD, n = 206). The mean patient age was 43.4 years, 75.2% were female, and the mean (SD) on-treatment period was 219 (185) days. Among patients with measurements before and during cariprazine treatment, estimated annual weight trajectories were + 3.55 (95% CI 2.38, 4.59) kg/year before cariprazine initiation and + 0.91 (- 1.17, 2.82) kg/year during cariprazine treatment. Additionally, annual linear trajectories evaluated across the on-treatment period were + 0.31 (- 0.42, 1.01) kg/m

conclusionIn this real-world analysis, cariprazine was associated with an estimated weight gain of + 0.91 kg/year and had minimal impact on BMI and blood pressure when evaluated up to 12 months.