Metabolic syndrome in people with schizophrenia: a review

People with severe mental illnesses (SMI), such as schizophrenia, have a reduced life expectancy compared to the general population 1–13. They have a 2–3 fold increased risk of dying, and this mortality gap associated with mental illness compared to the general population has widened in recent decades 13. People with severe mental illness have nearly twice the normal risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) 1–13. In the psychiatric community, this has led in recent years to a growing concern about physical illness in people with SMI, specifically CVD risk 14–24. People with SMI are more likely to be overweight, to smoke and to have hyper- glycaemia/diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia (Table 1).…