Psychotic Disorder Does Not Significantly Affect Lipid Control, Study Says 

A recent study sought to compare antihyperlipidemic medication adherence and lipid control between individuals with psychotic disorders and those without a psychiatric illness.

The authors wrote that while medication adherence for chronic medical illnesses has been studied extensively, there is limited data evaluating medication adherence for comorbid medical illnesses in a psychiatric population. “Examining medication adherence rates and clinical outcomes are important as chronic medical illnesses occur commonly in psychiatric patients, can be drug-induced, and have negative long-term consequences,” they wrote.

The researchers conducted a retrospective medical record review of 124 subjects with hyperlipidemia and diabetes (62 subjects with schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder and 62 randomly selected, age-matched individuals without a psychiatric illness) who were receiving medical and psychiatric care through the Veterans Affairs Medical Center during 2008. A cumulative mean gap ratio (CMGR) was used to determine adherence and lipid values were used to compare lipid control between groups.

The study showed a significant difference in CMGR between the groups.

“Subjects with psychotic disorders were without antihyperlipidemic therapy for 44 days compared with 62 days for the nonpsychiatric comparison group (P = 0.034). Antipsychotic adherent subjects (≥80% adherent) were more likely to adhere to their antihyperlipidemic medication (P = 0.0007). There were no significant differences between the groups for lipid control,” the authors wrote in the abstract.

The authors concluded that “antihyperlipidemic medication adherence differed with the psychotic disorder group having fewer days without drug therapy. However, there was no significant difference in lipid control between subjects with a psychotic disorder and those without a psychiatric illness.”

Nelson LA, Graham MR, Lindsey CC, Rasu RS. “Adherence to antihyperlipidemic medication and lipid control in diabetic veterans affairs patients with psychotic disorders.” Psychosomatics. 2011 Jul-Aug;52(4):310-8. PubMed PMID: 21777713.

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