Antipsychotic medications can disrupt metabolism, increasing a person’s risk of developing diabetes. However, researchers have found a way to prevent such development, according to a study published Thursday. “Antipsychotic medications don’t just stop working below the neck,” Dr.
Zachary Freyberg, associate professor of psychiatry and cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh and senior author of the study, said in a news release. They work by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain, restricting the flow of dopamine, and thereby controlling psychotic symptoms. However, the researchers showed that the same dopamine receptors are also in the pancreas.
Antipsychotic drugs can, therefore, interfere with these receptors in the pancreas. Since the pancreas is responsible for blood sugar regulation, such disruptions can cause high blood sugar and insulin levels and prediabetes, which increase a person’s risk of diabetes. BrMeI is similar to bromocriptine, a drug approved by the U.
S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat Type 2 diabetes. One difference? BrMeI was modified so it is less likely to pass through the brain-blood barrier, limiting its activity to the body and not the brain.
Early trials in mice show that BrMel can prevent antipsychotic medications from affecting organs, such as the pancreas. When taken with the antipsychotic drug, it can reverse or prevent dysglycemia. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Dr.
Freyberg said, “BrMeI on its own did not .
