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However, the weight gain occurred in women but not in men. Schneider said in an American Psychiatric Association news release. National Institute of Mental Health.

The study was to be published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The drugs, olanzapine and quetiapine, were both associated with significant weight gain. They're often used to minimize disruptive symptoms (such as psychosis or agitation), but patients should be monitored more closely," principal investigator Dr. Latest Alzheimers News Newer Drugs May Up Weight in Alzheimer's Patients Brain Cells Give New Clues to Alzheimer's Protein-Folding Problem May Help Spur Alzheimer's Ranks of Alzheimer's Patients Swell With Alzheimer's, Health-Care Costs Could Triple Want More News. Another drug, risperidone, wasn't associated with harmful metabolic changes, according to findings from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness -- Alzheimer's Disease (CATIE-AD) study, funded by the U.S.

The longer patients took the drugs, the more likely they were to experience significant weight gain. "These findings are especially troubling, because antipsychotics are associated with a higher risk of death and cerebrovascular adverse events in patients with dementia.

In addition, patients who took olanzapine experienced increases in waist circumference and declines in HDL cholesterol.

These kinds of metabolic side effects have been noted.