Mental Health Blogs

A new study out in General Hospital Psychiatry blames smoking and inactivity for heart disease related deaths among people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. No mention is made of the role of antipsychotics and other medications in this dynamic. From Medicalnewstoday.com:

“A large new study confirms that people with severe mental disorders – such as schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders – are 25 percent to 40 percent more prone to die from heart disease than people without mental illness are.

“Moreover, smoking and physical inactivity – behaviors that individuals potentially can change – significantly contribute to this increased risk of death, found researchers led by Amy Kilbourne, Ph.D.”

The study was among people in the VA system.

Interestingly, inactivity was a greater risk factor (66 percent higher risk) of a heart disease death than was smoking (32 percent higher risk). The study calls for smoking cessation programs and promotion of physical activity among veterans with psychotic disorders. How they plan on getting veterans zonked on Zyprexa to exercise is beyond me.

There is no mention in the study of the role antipsychotics may be playing in all of this even though antipsychotics are well-known to boost blood lipids and cholesterol as well as to cause diabetes and weight gain–all risk factors for heart disease. What’s odder about the omission is that atypical antipsychotics carry warnings of diabetes and cardiac problems, so why would researchers ignore the hazards presented by these medications?

Oh, we know why. These are doctors in denial much as with this study from earlier this year which claimed that people diagnosed with bipolar disorder died early, but barely mentioned any connection to chronic use of medications. I’m not excusing smoking or inactivity, but for this current study to ignore meds altogether is inexcusable.

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