A STUDY ON THE RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE LIPID PROFILE AND FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE IN ANTIPSYCHOTIC NAÏVE SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a severe form of mental illness affecting around 21 million people worldwide as of (about one of every 285) and about 7 per thousand of the adult population, mostly in the age group 15-35 years. Schizophrenia is one of the top 15 leading causes of disability worldwide. Though the incidence is low (3 per 10,000) but the prevalence is high due to chronicity. Schizophrenia is a multi-factorial disorder; investigators have not been able to identify a single factor that characterizes all patients with schizophrenia.

Materials & Method: A total of 100 patients from Assam Medical College and Hospital in the age group of 15 – 65 years were included in the study. Independent t test, one way ANOVA is assessed to evaluate the linkage between different parameters in the study. A p value <0.05 is considered as statistically significant at 95% Confidence Interval. SPSS and GraphPad – Prism 5, software’s will be used for all the statistical analysis.

Results: A total of 100 patients included in the study with mean age at diagnosis 30.9±9.2 (SD) years (Male 30.24± 8.858 and female 31.83±9.624, p=0.394), There is a significant difference observed between gender and marital status, it is found that Schizophrenia is more prevalent among unmarried male (74.1%), compared to unmarried female (33.3%), p<0.0001. Education found to be playing a significant role in developing Schizophrenia as 78.6% of all women registered cases were did not have any formal education whereas in male it is 50.0%, p=0.004. There is statistically significant difference in mean is observed in Fasting Blood Sugar, Total Cholesterol, Triglyceride, HDL-C, LDL-C, and VLDL-C among male and females of urban and rural patients.

Conclusion: Understanding the incidence and prevalence along with other correlated factors of Schizophrenia will give us the basis to understand the disease epidemiology in a better way. However, further long-term interventional studies needed for further in depth understanding. The parameters (HDL-Cholesterol, Triglycerides and fasting blood glucose) are components of the assessment criteria for metabolic syndrome. Determination of these parameters in antipsychotic naive schizophrenic patients may help in evaluating, if the patient has any risk factor of metabolic syndrome.