Abstract

Background and objectives: Metabolic syndrome comprises a few cardiovascular risk factors that increase morbidity and mortality. To evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Bahraini schizophrenia patients.
Methods: Using a case-control design, 50 patients with schizophrenia (cases) were compared to 50 age- and sex-matched healthy controls for the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The workout included: anthropometric measurements such as weight, height, and waist and hip circumference, fasting blood glucose, lipid profile, blood pressure, and patient medical history. Descriptive statistics mean and standard deviations for continuous variables and frequency counts and proportions for categorical variables were used to summarize the demographic characteristics and the different variables of the metabolic syndrome. Odds ratio (OR) was computed to measure the levels of association between exposure (schizophrenia) and outcomes (metabolic syndrome).
Results: Based on the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria, 48% cases had metabolic syndrome in comparison to 34% controls. A statistical difference was observed among the cases and controls with respect to three metabolic abnormalities i.e., central obesity (OR) 4.5; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.6-13.1; raised triglyceride level (OR 2.5; 95% CI, 0.9-7.3), and reduced level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-1.1).
Conclusion: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is extremely high among the Bahraini patients with schizophrenia. Clinicians are encouraged to monitor the physical health and its components in patients with schizophrenia to detect metabolic syndrome and reverse it. Future studies also need to merit racial variability in metabolic syndrome among patients with schizophrenia due to the difference in the predisposing factors. 

Keywords: Syndrome X, Schizophrenia, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance syndrome