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A recent research in Sweden has associated consumption of antipsychotic medications by pregnant women to them having an increased risk of developing diabetes.

"It's a very important and difficult area to study, because severe mental disorders - such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - often require consistent medication even if a woman is pregnant. So it's very important for us to know all the possible adverse effects from the medications," said Dr. Robert Bodén, the study's lead author from Uppsala University in Sweden, according to a Reuters report.

The researchers expect to establish a link between the development of gestational diabetes and olanzapine - sold as Zyprexa - and clozapine - sold as Fazaclo or Clozaril.

Olanzapine and Clozapine, are newer drugs in the market and have already been linked to weight gain, high cholesterol and increased insulin resistance, according to the authors.

"We thought (gestational diabetes risk) would be more exaggerated for those treated with the two (newer drugs) but we were surprised we saw it for all antipsychotics," said Bodén.

For the study researchers observed 360,000 pregnant women who gave birth over a span of four years. While 169 of them took olanzapine, clozapine or a combination of the two during pregnancy, 338 were on some other type of antipsychotic medication and 357,696 were not on any antipsychotic medication.

The results revealed that four percent of those on antipsychotic drugs developed gestational diabetes while only 1.7 percent of those not taking the drugs were diagnosed with pregnancy-related diabetes.

The researchers said, that the findings suggest women on antipsychotic drugs are twice as likely to develop gestational diabetes, when compared to others.

The study, however, has not established a cause and effect relationship between gestational diabetes and the intake of antipsychotic drugs. There are factors other than the medicine intake that are associated with women on antipsychotics. Poor diet and lack of exercise, for example, could lead to the condition as well.

According to Dr. Peter Manu, who has studied antipsychotics at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, perhaps the study might not have tracked women long enough to see a difference in diabetes risk while they were on newer and older medications.

"The message there is that - to some extent - even looking over a period of nine months may not give the entire story," Dr. Manu, who was not involved with the new research told Reuters Health.

Bodén added that women have to "balance a lot of things" when it comes to them, trying to to limit their risk of gestational diabetes due to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. He said that it varies from patient to patient.

It depends on what kind of medications do these patients need and for long they have been pregnant etc.