The body composition of the chronic mentally ill

The height and weight were measured and the total fat and fat-free mass were estimated in 1123 patients in a mental hospital. The results were compared with the reported values in healthy persons. The young patients weighed the same as young healthy persons whereas the average weight in the elderly patients was much less than healthy elderly persons. In the elderly women patients, this difference in weight was much greater in those with dementia than in those with affective disorders or schizophrenia. The difference in weight was not related to the duration of stay in hospital, and there was no evidence that it was due to malnutrition. The lower weight may therefore by a marker for those persons likely to need institutional care rather than the result of loss of weight. A minority of the elderly patients, particularly the ill and immobile, had one of the biochemical markers of malnutrition, low plasma concentrations of either albumin or vitamin C or vitamin D. On average, these patients weighed less and had less body fat than the others. These patients may be the high-risk group for nutritional deficiency but there was no evidence that any of them had a clinically significant nutritional problem.