Metabolic Syndrome in Psychiatric Inpatients Treated for Depression

That metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with schizophrenia is well established but recent findings suggest that the risk of MetS may be similar in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The investigators identified all admissions age 18–59 with a clinical diagnosis of MDD (n = 1,776) at an urban, not-for-profit hospital in the US to determine the prevalence of MetS and of each of its five ATP III criteria. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of MetS and its component measures and χ2 analyses to compare these results with the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data (NHANES). Stepwise logistic regressions were used to identify associated demographic and clinical features. In the subset of patients for whom all metabolic measures were available (n = 1,028), 23.4% (n = 241) had MetS and 75.6% (n = 777) met at least one criterion for the syndrome. Compared with the NHANES sample, MDD patients were more likely to have elevated glucose (p