The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cigarette smoking in patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like disorders - preliminary report

Abstract

Introduction.Metabolic syndrome is a complex of abdominal obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and abnormal blood glucose levels. The presence of this syndrome increases the risk of death due to cardio-vascular diseases. Current researches indicate that the prevalence of this syndrome may be higher in patients treated with antipsychotics comparing to general population. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, its components and cigarette smoking among the patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like psychoses treated with antipsychotics.
Material and methods. Thirty patients were enrolled in the study (7 women and 23 men). The following data were acquired: total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose blood levels, hypertension, abdominal obesity, body weight, BMI, cigarette smoking and certain demographic factors.
Results. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 43,3% of the patients (42,9% women and 43,7% men). The incidence of its components was: 76,7% (abdominal obesity), 43,3% (hipertriglicerydemia), 46,7% (decreased HDL cholesterol blood level), 26,7% (hypertension), 20,0% (impaired fasting glucose). Abnormal body weight (overweight or obesity) was found in 80% of the patients.
Conclusions. Achieved results confirm that metabolic syndrome is significantly more common among the patients treated with antipsychotics comparing to general population. A very high incidence of cigarette smoking and abnormal body weight was found.