Antipsychotic treatment and the prevalence of diabetes among elderly patients in psychiatric rehabilitation

Abstract We aimed to compare the risk of diabetes in a Hungarian schizophrenic population treated with atypical antipsychotics with that of the non-schizophrenic population. We wished to reveal the effects of gender and age. A schizophrenic population ( n = 135 male and n = 110 female patients of different age groups) was examined by studying hospital charts in the Gálfi Béla Hospital specialized on gerontopsychiatric attendance with a main profile of rehabilitation. Data were given by the National Health Insurance Fund registry in the period of 2000–2006, while the Hungarian Central Statistical Office presented data on the prevalence of diabetes in the Hungarian population. Binomial distribution was used for the hypothesis testing. The examination shows higher prevalence of diabetes among schizophrenic patients (12.72%) in comparison with the Hungarian population (6.85%) in the age group of 18–64 among both sexes, while there was no higher risk of diabetes found in the age group of above 65 among both sexes. As a conclusion, we emphasize that continuous weight, glucose and lipid level monitoring should be considered during treatment with antipsychotics in all age groups, even if our study does not show higher risk of diabetes among elderly schizophrenic patients.