They’re not even trying to avoid it—from MedScape:
Metabolic Monitoring in Patients Prescribed Antipsychotics Abysmal
January 28, 2009 — Among insured patients newly prescribed second-generation antipsychotics, monitoring of blood glucose and lipid levels falls far short of 2004 American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, researchers report.
The guidelines are based on substantial evidence that these drugs can increase risk for cardiovascular disease by affecting lipid and glucose metabolism and body weight.
However, this study showed that by 2006, just over 10% of patients newly prescribed second-generation antipsychotics received lipid monitoring and just over 20% received glucose monitoring.
“These numbers are unacceptably low, given that the ideal level of monitoring should be 100%,” lead author Dan W. Haupt, MD, from Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri, told Medscape Psychiatry. (read the rest here)
It’s even worse among the uninsured. Nutso. For those of us who chose to use psychotropics of any sort, it’s up to us to find a way to monitor ourselves. And we’re supposed to be the mad ones. *snort*
I can’t believe that. Seems like malpractice to me.