The Relationship between Antipsychotic Drug Use and Liver Enzyme Levels in People with Mental Disorders

Abstract

The long-term use of some drugs causes side effects in the form of elevated liver enzyme levels. Meanwhile, antipsychotic drug therapy in people with mental disorders induces liver injury which leads to an elevation in serum glutamic oxaloacetic and pyruvic transaminases. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relationship between the uses of antipsychotic drugs with elevated liver enzymes in people with mental disorders. This observational study used a cross-sectional design that included 69 people with mental disorders. The respondents were selected based on consecutive non-random sampling, while the data were collected using a questionnaire to obtain the universal characteristics of the subjects, therapy duration, and antipsychotic type, as well as an examination of AST and ALT levels using the ultraviolet test method. Furthermore, data analysis was conducted using the chi-Square test with a significance level of p<0.05. The results showed that thirty-two among the respondents or 46.4% used atypical antipsychotics, while 37 or 73.0% received the drugs for 1-6 months. In the subjects receiving typical antipsychotics, 10 or 55.6% had a significant elevation in liver enzymes compared to others receiving atypical antipsychotics namely 6 (18.8%) or a combination of both drugs namely 6 (31.6%). Therefore, the type of antipsychotic used in therapy has a significant relationship with elevated liver enzymes in people with mental disorders (p=0.028).
 Keywords: antipsychotics, drugs, elevated

Elevated liver transaminases among patients with psychiatric disorders

“…This gender disparity may be due to the antidopaminergic effect of estrogen in women, as the hormone estrogen has been shown to inhibit the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. It has been suggested that the cause of schizophrenia is an increase in the number of dopamine receptors in the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, and putamen and that the estrogen neuroprotective role may be responsible for the reduced incidence and improved course of the disease in women (Canuso and Pandina, 2007; Meiyanti et al , 2022).…”