Background: Obesity is up to 4 times higher in patients with schizophrenia than in the general population. However, the link between obesity and schizophrenia in the absence of antipsychotic use is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to examine differences in obesity measures (body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)) in antipsychotic-naive and minimally treated (up to 2 weeks of lifetime antipsychotic exposure) patients with psychosis compared to healthy controls (HCs).
Methods: A systematic search was conducted using Ovid Medline®, PsycINFO, and Embase. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) in obesity measures between groups were calculated. Separate sensitivity analyses were performed to examine the effects of age, sex, and ethnicity; antipsychotic exposure; and schizophrenia-related psychosis on SMDs.
Results: A total of 23 studies were included in the meta-analysis (BMI = 23, WC = 9, WHR = 5). BMI was lower (SMD = -0.19, 95% CI = -0.34 to -0.05, P = 0.009) and WHR was elevated (SMD = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.14 to 0.55, P = 0.001) in patients. These differences remained after analyses were restricted to patients matched with HCs for age, sex, and ethnicity; to antipsychotic-naive patients; and to patients with schizophrenia-related diagnoses.
Conclusions: Differences in BMI and WHR were observed in never and minimally treated patients with psychosis compared to HCs. Future research is warranted to understand these alterations in the context of body fat biomarkers and neuropathology of psychiatric disorders, independent of the effects of antipsychotics.
Keywords: Antipsychotic-naive; Metabolic; Obesity; Schizophrenia; Untreated; Weight.
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