Body composition in patients with schizophrenia: Comparison with healthy controls

Abstract

BackgroundRecently, a relationship between obesity and schizophrenia has been reported. Although fat- mass and fat free mass have been shown to be more predictive of health risk than body mass index, there are limited findings about body composition among patients suffering from schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to compare the body composition of schizophrenia patients with that of healthy subjects in Japan.MethodsWe recruited patients (n = 204), aged 41.3 ± 13.8 (mean ± SD) years old with the DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia who were admitted to psychiatric hospital using a cross-sectional design. Subjects' anthropometric measurements including weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and medications were also collected. Body fat, percent (%) body fat, fat- free mass, muscle mass, and body water were measured using the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method. Comparative analysis was performed with schizophrenic subjects and 204 healthy control individuals.ResultsIn a multiple regression model with age, body mass index, and dose in chlorpromazine equivalents, schizophrenia was a significantly linked with more body fat, higher % body fat, lower fat- free mass, lower muscle mass, and lower body water among males. In females, schizophrenia had a significant association with lower % body fat, higher fat- free mass, higher muscle mass, and higher body water.ConclusionsOur data demonstrate gender differences with regard to changes in body composition in association with schizophrenia. These results indicate that intervention programs designed to fight obesity among schizophrenic patients should be individualized according to gender.

Anthropometric Characteristics and the Burden of Altered Nutritional Status among Neuropsychiatric Patients at Zomba Mental Hospital in Zomba, Malawi

“…Despite this being a small study, the prevalence of obesity (7.4%) among ZMH female patients is, therefore, higher than the national prevalence. This is consistent with a Japanese study that showed both male and female schizophrenic patients with significantly higher BMIs than controls 14 . Owing to the positive correlation between BMI and the risk of metabolic syndrome 15 , the present study suggests that Malawian psychiatric patients could be at a higher risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).…”

The Role of Genetic Variation of BMI, Body Composition, and Fat Distribution for Mental Traits and Disorders: A Look-Up and Mendelian Randomization Study

“…Most clinical studies (Sugawara et al, 2012;Konarzewska et al, 2014;Strassnig et al, 2017), but not all (Kim et al, 2017) have found a higher BF%, BFM, visceral adipose tissue mass in normal weight patients with schizophrenia as compared to healthy controls. These clinical observational studies either considered antipsychotic medication as a covariable (Strassnig et al, 2017), discuss it as a justification for observed differences (Kim et al, 2017), or mention the inclusion of patients on antipsychotics as a limitation (Sugawara et al, 2012). Besides general limitations of observational studies such as residual confounding, directions of potential causal links between body fat distribution and schizophrenia remain unclear.…”

Exploiting horizontal pleiotropy to search for causal pathways within a Mendelian randomization framework

“…Additionally, the example of sleep duration and risk of schizophrenia suggested coeliac disease and body composition as putative risk factors for schizophrenia. A number of observational studies suggested that schizophrenia is linked with body composition 44 and coeliac disease 45 . MR of binary exposures is often difficult to interpret because the instrument effects are on liability to disease, not the presence or absence of the disease.…”