Schizophrenia and Diabetes. What's the Link?

Main Category: Schizophrenia
Article Date: 04 Sep 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Research over several decades has demonstrated that people with schizophrenia have as much as two to four times higher risk of diabetes than the general population. Is the high-rate of diabetes among schizophrenics a result of poor diet, lack of exercise, a result of certain anti-psychotic drugs, or a combination of these and other factors?

People with schizophrenia experience three major types of symptoms: psychotic symptoms (delusions), deficit symptoms (diminished emotions) and mood symptoms (depression). The increased use of effective atypical anti-psychotic drugs to deal with these symptoms has seen a corresponding rise in diabetes among schizophrenics.

Some researchers suspect these drugs interfere with some kind of chemical process both in the brain and the body and lead to the development of something called insulin resistance.

The Research Center on the Psychobiology of Ethnicity at LA BioMed is running a series of clinical trials dealing with the issue of schizophrenia and diabetes. To contact Michael W. Smith, MD, principal investigator of the project, call 310-222-4266.

Contact: David Feuerherd
df@issuesmanagement.com
310-215-0234
Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)