Abstract
Background Psychotic disorders are mental illnesses whose treatment often includes antipsychotic medication, a treatment option associated with metabolic side effects including weight gain. However, the influence of sex on antipsychotic-associated weight gain remains inadequately explored. We aim to synthesise the evidence on the sex-specific differences in weight gain among patients with psychotic disorders receiving antipsychotic treatment. Methods We will include cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies and randomized controlled trials, which examine the association between a treated psychotic disorder and weight gain in male and female patients. PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO and Web of Science databases will be systematically searched in accordance with a detailed search strategy. Other inclusion criteria are; only articles which mention gender or sex in the title or abstract, only data from original studies, studies where diagnosis of a psychotic disorder must be made by a medical practitioner using diagnostic guidelines, studies published in English only, and only peer-reviewed literature. Two review authors will independently review the titles and abstracts of all studies and perform data extraction and quality assessment using standardized tools. We will perform meta-analyses to estimate the overall pooled associations using the generic inverse variance method. We will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses. Ethics and Dissemination This systematic review and meta-analysis, relying solely on already published data, does not necessitate ethics approval. The results will be shared at scientific gatherings and disseminated via publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Registration CRD42023495785