To Study The Effect of Ranitidine on Olanzapine Induced Weight Gain in Rats

Abstract

Objective Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug exhibiting a low incidence of extrapyramidal side effects. It is not only effective in treating positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but also more efficacious against negative and depressive symptoms than classical antipsychotics. Olanzapine has been recommended as the first-line drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, a common side effect of olanzapine, namely weight gain, has also been observed. A comprehensive literature analysis revealed that olanzapine induced higher weight gain than most other antipsychotics, only second to clozapine. The incidence of olanzapine-induced weight gain and related diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, is higher than that of the general population. These unwanted side effects have decreased the adherence to treatment. Various studies showed that H2 receptor antagonist class of drugs may be useful to treat the weight gain induced by olanzapine treatment. So, present study was conducted to investigate the effect of ranitidine as an adjuvant therapy to minimize the unwanted effect of olanzapine. Material and method In this study, olanzapine suspension (3 mg/kg) was given orally to induce weight gain in female wistar rats for 3 weeks followed by test drug, ranitidine at three dose level of 10, 20, & 30 mg/kg orally for 2 weeks. Sibutramine was taken as standard drug at dose level of 6 mg/kg. At the end of treatment, various parameters like food intake, body weight, body mass index (BMI), serum lipid profile, blood sugar level and blood pressure were measured in the treatment, normal control as well as olanzapine treated group and were compared. Results Results show that, Olanzapine treated group showed marked increased in food intake, body weight, BMI, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL and VLDL level and significant decreased in serum HDL level compared to normal control group. Olanzapine treatment also increased blood sugar level compared to normal control group. There was marked decreased in food intake, body weight and BMI after the treatment with ranitidine and sibutramine. Also, there was significant decrease in serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL and VLDL level and raised in serum HDL level compared to olanzapine treated group. There was also significant decrease in blood sugar level. Significant decrease in mean blood pressure was observed compared to olanzapine treated group. Histological examination showed that,. Conclusion Our interest with this study was to demonstrate that ranitidine can be a potentially simple and useful response for the treatment of weight gain and other risk factors associated with Olanzapine use.