Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome among Psychiatric Inpatients: A Hospital Based Study from Kashmir

Over the last fifty years there has been dramatic change in the human environment, behaviours and way-of-life. These changes have resulted in escalating rates of metabolic syndrome not only in general population but also among people with mental illness. Various factors, like the lack of exercise, use of psychotropic medications and inadequate medical care leads to the increased risk of metabolic changes among people with mental illness. Hence, there is a greater need to evaluate metabolic syndrome in this population.

To find the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among psychiatric inpatients in Tertiary Care Hospital in Kashmir region of North India.

It was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Kashmir, India. A total of 213 in-patients with a primary psychiatric diagnosis as per The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD 10) Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders criteria were evaluated for the presence of metabolic syndrome. A modified National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) criterion for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was used. All the intergroup comparisons for parametric data were done by Student's t-test, whereas non-parametric data were analysed by Chi-square tests. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 34.74%. The prevalence was higher in females (43.3%) than males (28.5%) (p<0.05) and it increased with age, with the highest prevalence in the age group >50 years (p<0.05). Among the diagnostic subgroups, the prevalence was highest among patients with unipolar depression (45.0%), while it was lesser in patients with bipolar disorders (37.88%) and psychotic disorders (30.95%). Prevalence of metabolic syndrome was significantly higher (63.64%) among patients taking second generation antipsychotics (p<0.05).

Our study shows that metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent among psychiatric inpatients and needs to be addressed to prevent the risk for cardiovascular diseases.