Evidence of basal pituitary-adrenal overactivity in first episode, drug naïve patients with schizophrenia.

Background: Evidence for basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction in schizophrenia is less consistent than that seen in major depression. Potential reasons include sampling procedures and the use of patients on antipsychotic medications which may suppress the HPA axis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether first episode, drug naïve patients with schizophrenia have evidence of basal HPA axis dysfunction by measuring plasma levels of AVP, ACTH and cortisol from 13:00 to 16:00 h, a time frame which is believed to reflect 24 h concentrations of HPA axis activity.

The effects of atypical antipsychotics on visceral fat distribution in first episode, drug-naive patients with schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to determine the location of antipsychotic-induced weight gain in drug naïve, first episode patients with schizophrenia. Various fatness and fat distribution parameters (by Computerized Tomography scanning and anthropometry) and 1600 hr plasma cortisol were measured in 19 (15 men and 4 women) subjects with schizophrenia (mean age = 31.0 years; mean body mass index [BMI] = 24.

Impaired fasting glucose tolerance in first-episode, drug-naive patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: This study examined the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose tolerance in first-episode, drug-naive patients with schizophrenia.

Method: In this cross-sectional study, fasting plasma levels of glucose, insulin, lipids, and cortisol were measured in 15 male and 11 female hospitalized Caucasian patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia (mean age=33.6 years) and age- and sex-matched healthy comparison subjects.

Physical consequences of schizophrenia and its treatment: the metabolic syndrome.

Schizophrenia is a life shortening illness. Unnatural causes and natural causes are put forward as reasons for this excess mortality. In terms of the latter, a host of different physical disorders occur with increased frequency in schizophrenia.