People with serious mental illness have mortality rates 2-3 times as high as the general population. The primary cause of death is cardiovascular disease, which in turn is due to an extremely high prevalence of obesity (twice that of the overall population). Physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, and weight gain from psychotropic medication are all factors [read the full story…]
The Healthy Active Lives (HeAL) international consensus statement aims to reverse the trend of people with severe mental illness dying early by tackling risks for future physical illnesses pro-actively and much earlier. The statement is being launched today by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, at a special event focusing on achieving parity between mental and [read the full story…]
It’s not all about the Mental Elf you know. There are lots of other elves who spend every waking hour scurrying around to find reliable evidence to help you. There are now seven magnificent elf websites and one more due to launch very soon. Here’s a quick run down of my brothers and sisters in [read the full story…]
We have posted previously about the higher prevalence of obesity and overweight in people with learning disabilities. The researchers in this study were interested in looking at the data on body weight status and lipids levels of adults with learning disabilities who also had mental health problems. They carried out a stepwise multiple regression analysis, [read the full story…]
The reduced life expectancy (15-20 years less) often faced by many people with schizophrenia is frequently a result of cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle choices (smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet) can increase the risk of these diseases, but people who take antipsychotic drugs often have the additional problem of weight gain that is caused by [read the full story…]
Diet is a contributory factor to both obesity and dental caries and a number of studies have linked these two global public health problems. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate and quantify the relationship between obesity and dental caries in children. Searches of the Embase, MedLine, ScienceDirect, Ovid and PsychInfo [read the full story…]
Weight gain is one of the side effects that people who take antipsychotic drugs complain of the most. Obesity is common in this population and this can often lead to cardiovascular problems and a far shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. As a result, there is a great deal of interest in [read the full story…]
We have posted many times about the issue of overweight and obesity in people with learning disabilities. This study in France set out look at health-related fitness in adolescents with learning disabilities and to analyse various performances in physical fitness tests according to degrees of obesity in that poopulation. The researchers worked with 87 French [read the full story…]
For many different reasons, people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders have a greater risk of type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in people with schizophrenia is twice that of the general population. This review looked for evidence of the efficacy of interventions to help people with schizophrenia manage their diabetes. Clinical question [read the full story…]
In this US study, the authors looked at the prevalence of obesity in people with learning disability and those in the general U.S. adult population without learning disability. They found that adults with learning disability did not differ from the general population in prevalence of obesity. However, when they combined obesity and overweight they found [read the full story…]
