Easy screen for CVD risk in mentally ill

Some psychiatric drugs, such as certain antipsychotics, seem to be partly responsible for the higher CVD risk by increasing the likelihood of developing elements of the metabolic syndrome including weight gain, type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia.

Now a new study suggests that measuring waist circumference and blood pressure offers a 'clinically useful … quick and reliable' method of detecting metabolic syndrome in patients with addiction and other co-morbid psychiatric disorders.

The study enrolled 41 people being treated for psychiatric disorders and addiction as in-patients or in the community. Mood disorders and schizophrenia spectrum disorders accounted for 39% and 34% of primary diagnoses respectively.