Feeding behaviors among incident cases of schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital: Association with dimensions of psychopathology and social support.

Background: Despite early description by Eugen Bleuler of abnormal feeding behaviors among patients with schizophrenia, it has remained poorly studied and understood by clinicians. The present study sought to describe the various eating behaviors among incident cases of schizophrenia and its relationship with the dimensions of psychopathology and perceived social support.

Methods: This study elicited information on the feeding behavior of 206 incident cases of schizophrenia being followed up for various nutritional outcomes. Feeding behavior, dimensions of psychopathology and perceived social support were measured using literature based researchers' constructed nutritional questions, Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), and Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), respectively. Relationship between food refusal and dimensions of psychopathology as well as perceived social support were tested using independent t-test.

Results: Food refusal was seen in 56.5% of the patients, with 32.5% of it attributed to suspiciousness. Of the 13.2% with Inappropriate feeding behavior, 46.4% and 14.3% were related to abnormal food preparation and pica, respectively. Food refusal was significantly associated with positive symptoms dimension and general psychopathology (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Our findings show that subtle feeding abnormalities occur among schizophrenia patients and this is related to positive symptoms dimension and poor perceived social support.