Switching antipsychotics – a qualitative study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Switching oral antipsychotics to improve diabetes outcomes in people with schizophrenia - A qualitative study to explore the perspectives of service users and clinicians
IRAS ID
231154
Contact name
Saeed Farooq
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Keele University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Research has shown that people with schizophrenia have a higher risk of diabetes. The life expectancy of people with severe mental illness can be reduced by 15-20 years due to physical health problems. Antipsychotic medication heighten this problem as a common side effect is weight gain. Some newer antipsychotics cause lesser weight gain and hence less likely to cause diabetes or make it's control worse. It is important, therefore, to examine how switching from one of the older antipsychotics (olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine) to a newer antipsychotic (like lurasidone and Aripiprazole) can affect the control of diabetes, weight gain and lipid profile.
We, therefore, need to understand the views of clinicians and service users about switching the presently used antipsychotics. The present study aims to understand the views and perceptions about the current antipsychotics, how it affects their diabetes control and whether they will consider switching antipsychotics to improve this control. We also aim to understand the views of clinicians regarding switching; whether they think it is a worthwhile strategy and what practical problems they may face in changing antipsychotics. To be able to do this, we will hold a number of focus groups and/or individual interviews. There will be separate focus groups for patients and clinicians: three focus groups for patients and two for clinicians; each will contain between 6 and 10 members per group. Patients will have a diagnosis of diabetes type 2 and schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Patient and public involvement and engagement will help shape how we conduct these focus groups/interviews. The findings will allow us to plan a clinical trial in the future which will look at the effects of taking different antipsychotics in relation to weight gain and risk of diabetes.
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
18/NI/0072
Date of REC Opinion
1 May 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion