Metabolic syndrome and schizophrenia

Metabolic syndrome – a cluster of disorders comprising obesity (central and abdominal), dyslipidaemias, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance (or hyperinsulinaemia) and hypertension – is highly predictive of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. In order to improve detection of this syndrome and estimate its prevalence, both the World Health Organization (Alberti & Zimmet, 1998) and the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (National Cholesterol Education Program, 2001) have provided working criteria for its diagnosis (the World Health Organization criteria are reproduced in an appendix to this paper; copyright restrictions prevent the inclusion here of the National Cholesterol Education Program criteria). Using the latter criteria, Heiskanen et al (2003) found that the frequency of metabolic syndrome was 2–4 times higher in a group of people with schizophrenia, treated with both atypical and typical neuroleptics, than in an appropriate reference population.