Metabolic syndrome and 10-year risk of cardiovascular events among schizophrenia inpatients treated with antipsychotics

The metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent among patients with schizophrenia. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and the risk of cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years among schizophrenic patients.

This cross sectional study was performed on 100 Iranian patients with schizophrenia in 2016. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was determined by adult treatment panel III criteria, and 10-year cardiovascular risk was calculated by Framingham Risk Score. SPSS software was used to perform statistical analysis. Chi-square and Fisher's exact or extended Fisher's exact tests were used to compare dichotomous variables. Also, Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare the quantitative variables. Significance level was considered to be less than or equal to 0.05.

In this study, 83 participants (83%) were male and 17 (17%) were female. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 27% (21.7% in males and 52.9% in females, p=0.015). Among all components of metabolic syndrome, low HDL-C in men and abdominal obesity in females were the most common disorders. Based on Framingham Risk Score, 76%, 16%, and 8% of patients had low, intermediate, and high level of risk, respectively. A significant difference was observed between the level of risk among participants with and without metabolic syndrome (p=0.042).

In this study, patients with schizophrenia showed a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome, but most of them had low risk of developing cardiovascular disease. These results suggest regular screening and early interventions to modify the risk factors of metabolic syndrome.