The dietary pattern of patients with schizophrenia: preliminary results

Abstract

Introduction: Patients suffering from schizophrenia have reduced life expectancy compared to the general population, primarily because of earlier occurrence of cardiovascular disease. This condition can be explained through high rates of metabolic syndrome in these patients, with several risk factors for cardiovascular disease - abdominal obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, hypertension, and impaired insulin and glucose metabolism. Several epidemiological studies have suggested a cardioprotective role of the Mediterranean Diet Objectives: The aim was to investigate the quality of food habits in the population of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Methods: Ninety-five patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (51 male, mean age 46.11±11.61) were included. A Short Mediterranean-diet questionnaire was used. Results: 61.1% of the subjects were tobacco smokers. Only 12.6% of subjects used olive oil in their diet, 67.4% had one meal with vegetables, and 80% one meal with fruit daily. 58.9% did not drink soda, while almost no subjects (2.1%) drank wine. Only 5.4% ate more than 3 meals with legumes per week. 40% of the participants did not eat any fish at all, while 46.4% ate fish only once per week. There were no statistically significant differences between the genders in eating habits. Conclusions: Our results found that people suffering from schizophrenia had bad dietary habits, which is in line with the findings of prior research. It could be plausible that these dietary habits may be a cause of higher incidence of metabolic abnormalities