Diet and physical activity and metabolic disorders in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder in the Polish population

Women with Schizophrenia Have Difficulty Maintaining Healthy Diets for Themselves and Their Children: A Narrative Review

Severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are inevitably linked to unemployment, meagre per capita income, and residence in disadvantaged, poorly resourced neighbourhoods. This means difficult access to healthy food and is particularly problematic for pregnant women and mothers with children to feed. The necessity of taking antipsychotic drugs is an additional barrier to healthy eating because these drugs are associated with serious cognitive, psychological, behavioural, and metabolic sequelae. Being ill with psychosis makes it extremely difficult to maintain a healthy diet; nutritional deficiencies result, as do medical complications. The results of present literature review confirm the gravity of the problem and suggest a number of potentially useful clinical interventions.

Metabolic Syndrome and Adipokines Profile in Bipolar Depression

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a growing social, economic, and health problem. MS coexists with nearly half of all patients with affective disorders. This study aimed to evaluate the neurobiological parameters (clinical, anthropometric, biochemical, adipokines levels, and ultrasound of carotid arteries) and their relationship with the development of MS in patients with bipolar disorder. The study group consisted of 70 patients (50 women and 20 men) hospitalized due to episodes of depression in the course of bipolar disorders. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was used to assess the severity of the depression symptoms in an acute state of illness and after six weeks of treatment. The serum concentration of adipokines was determined using an ELISA method. The main finding of this study is that the following adipokines correlated with MS in the bipolar depression women group: visfatin, S100B, and leptin had a positive correlation, whereas adiponectin, leptin-receptor, and adiponectin/leptin ratio showed a negative correlation. Moreover, the adiponectin/leptin ratio showed moderate to strong negative correlation with insulin level, BMI, waist circumference, triglyceride level, treatment with metformin, and a positive moderate correlation with HDL. The adiponectin/leptin ratio may be an effective tool to assess MS in depressed female bipolar patients.