Glucose metabolism alterations in patients with bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) are more frequently affected by metabolic syndrome (MetS) than the general population, but the neurobiological correlates underlying such association are still not clarified and few studies in BD have evaluated the role of regulators of lipid and glucose metabolism. The present study was aimed to investigate putative alterations in markers linked to metabolic dysfunctions as C-peptide, Ghrelin, GIP, GLP-1, Glucagon, Insulin, Leptin, PAI-1 (total), Resistin and Visfatin in a sample of BD patients compared to controls. Furthermore, associations between changes of metabolic markers and relevant clinical features, such as severity of symptomatology, number and type of past mood episodes, drug treatments and presence/absence of metabolic alterations (MetS, diabetes and cardiovascular disease) were analyzed. A total of 57 patients with BD and 49 healthy controls were recruited. The main results showed lower serum levels of Glucagon, GLP-1, Ghrelin, and higher levels of GIP in BD patients as compared to controls (p=0.018 for Ghrelin; p