Background: Anorexia nervosa is known as an eating disorder that is associated with significant low body-weight, self-starvation and food restrictions. It all usually starts with thoughts of a desire wanting to eat healthier and look thinner. The sickness has become increasingly common in the recent time where 0,5-1% of Sweden’s population suffers from the disease. Most of those who suffer from anorexia nervosa are young girls in their teenage years.The disease comes with consequences and needs to be treated. A person sick in anorexia nervosa can feel a loss of strength which is associated with the lack of energy. Other symptoms that come along with anorexia nervosa are usually low blood pressure, low pulse (bradycardia) and amenorrhea.Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder, but it also has psychological effects that often come with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These symptoms combined makes it difficult to treat anorexia nervosa and usually demands a combination of supervised weight gain and psychological therapy. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of olanzapine treatment regarding weight gain in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug that has a well-known adverse effect known as weight gain. In this study this adverse effect of olanzapine is used to see if the drug can be well tolerated and applied to patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Method: This literature review study analyzed six studies and their results regarding the efficacy of olanzapine on weight gaining in anorexia nervosa patients. One study that was included in this literature review was a case study of a young 15-year-old girl's journey to become healthy from anorexia nervosa while using olanzapine. Three of the six studies were randomized controlled trials that compared olanzapine against placebo while two of the six studies were open label studies that evaluated olanzapine efficacy in anorexia nervosa patients. Results: The results based on the six studies show that olanzapine has positive effects regarding weight gaining in patients suffering low weight from anorexia nervosa. The randomized controlled trials that were included in this literature review study show that olanzapine had a greater significant effect on weight gain compared to placebo. The side effects of olanzapine presented in the studies were very mild to moderate and included sleepiness and headache. The doses of olanzapine used in the six studies were similar and contained 10-15 mg olanzapine each day. Conclusion: In summary, olanzapine has the benefit of increasing weight in anorexia nervosa patients, but the evidence is limited because of the small number of participants in the studies and only a few studies have been made. It would be of interest to see if olanzapine still has a beneficial effect in larger studies with more participants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-100191 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Koljic, Emina |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kemi och biomedicin (KOB) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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