Cardiovascular Problems May Worsen Cognition in People With Schizophrenia

Risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as metabolic disorders, diabetes, or hypertension, are significantly associated with cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia, according to astudy published inJAMA Psychiatry.The findings point to the importance of efforts to address risk factors for cardiovascular disease in these patients to help prevent further deterioration in cognition and improve functioning, wrote Katsuhiko Hagi, Ph.D., of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma in Tokyo, Japan, Jean Pierre Lindenmayer, M.D., of the New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues.Hagi and colleagues searched databases including Embase, Scopus, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane for studies on cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and the association of CVD risk factors (including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and others). The studies also compared cognitive performance between those with and without CVD risk factors.In total, 27 studies were included in the analysis, representing 10,174 individuals with schizophrenia. The authors identified significantly greater cognitive deficits in patients who had metabolic disorders, diabetes, or hypertension compared with those who did not have those disorders. Further, these patients performed worse on reasoning/problem solving, speed of processing, and verbal learning compared with patients without these disorders. Cognitive impairment was not significantly associat...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: cardiovascular disease cognition diabetes hypertension JAMA Psychiatry learning metabolic syndrome obesity problem solving processing speed schizophrenia Source Type: research