Assessment of cardiovascular disease risk factors in patients treated for schizophrenia

The aim of the study was the analysis of the occurrence of cardiovascular risk factors (age, sex, smoking, level of cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, body mass index) among patients diagnosed with schizophrenia as well as searching for correlations between them and length of stay at long-term care facilities and clinical variables, such as severity of positive, negative and general symptoms of schizophrenia, illness duration, and type of pharmacotherapy (neuroleptic type and its dose).

Medical data were collected from 71 patients (30 women and 41 men) aged between 40 and 86 years who were treated in the residential care facility due to paranoid schizophrenia. Information concerning patient's clinical status was collected during periodic check-ups. Theexamination consisted of standard anamnesis regarding patient's general feeling, psychiatric assessment using the PANSS and identifying number of smoked cigarettes. Somatic assessment included: physical examination, measuring blood pressure, pulse, capillary blood glucose levels, height, weight, and BMI.

Statistical analysis did not reveal significant differences in length of stay at long-term psychiatric care facility between patients with normal BMI vs. overweight and obese patients (p = 0.85). Study results indicate that prevalence of central obesity, hypertension, abnormal total - and LDL-cholesterol is higher in patients who stay at the long-term psychiatric care facility for a longer period of time. There is at least one cardiovascular risk factor in 74.6% of examined patients treated for schizophrenia.

Imposing "healthy" lifestyle as part of clinical management in long-termcare setting in people treated with neuroleptics (atypical or typical) might reduce risk of body mass increase. Undertaking action towards reducing modifiable cardiovascular risk factors remains highly recommended in mental health care, particularly in long-term care.