Comparison of the metabolic syndrome risk factors in antipsychotic naïve and chronic schizophrenia patients

Aim: This study aimed to compare the prevalence of MetS and cardiovascular risk factors in antipsychotic naïve schizophrenia (AN-SZ) and chronic schizophrenia (C-SZ) patients. Also, the effects of lifestyle, physical activity and clinical characteristics of these patients on metabolic syndrome were explored. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 150 patients, 16-65 aged years were included. All subjects were re cruited from the Psychiatric clinic of a tertiary hospital, Rasht, Iran. The severity of symptoms was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Physical activity and lifestyle were evaluated by the Baecke and Lifestyle questionnaires. Results: Fifty AN-SZ patients and 100 C-SZ patients participated. The rate of abdominal obesity was 29.2% for females and 10.3% for males. The C-SZ patients had significantly fewer healthy habitual physical activity and lifestyle, compared with AN-SZ patients. The prevalence of MetS in the AN-SZ and C-SZ groups was 8% and 23%, respectively (odds ratio [OR] 3.13). Binary logistic regression revealed age and unhealthy lifestyle to be significant predictors of MetS (adjusted OR 1.09 and 0.65, respectively). Discussion: We found with increasing each 10 years, the odds of MetS to increase 2.37 times. There was a significant negative association between a healthy lifestyle of SZ patients and MetS. For lifestyle habits, a de crease in the LSQ score by each one-point increases the odds of MetS by 45%. Conclusions: We found a higher prevalence of obesity and MetS in C-SZ patients. The results of the present study showed a significant relationship between age, LSQ score and MetS development. Future studies are recommended to explore the importance of weight management and nutrition control for reducing the rate of MetS.