People with psychosis face a reduction in life expectancy of up to 20 years compared with the general population. This gap is largely due to physical health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, rather than suicide, and it is widening. Poor cardiometabolic health is prevalent among people with schizophrenia, and is a result of a mixture of factors, including side effects of medication, lifestyle-related factors such as poorer diet, higher smoking rates and reduced physical activity, and wider socioeconomic factors that are associated with psychosis, such as poverty, poorer access to health care, social isolation and marginalisation.
This clinical practice point is designed to help clinicians understand:
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Why it is important to monitor cardiometabolic health in young people with early psychosis
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How do clinicians screen for cardiometabolic health issues
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Interventions that address cardiometabolic risk factors