Background Some studies suggest individuals with schizophrenia have an increased risk of diabetes prior to antipsychotic use. Small sample sizes and the potential for confounding by hypercortisolaemia have decreased confidence in those results. Aims To examine diabetes-related factors in newly diagnosed, antipsychotic-naive people with non-affective psychosis. Method Participants with psychosis (the psychosis group; n = 50) and matched controls (the control group; n = 50) were given a 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Fasting concentrations were also determined for adiponectin, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein. Results Compared with the control group, the psychosis group had significant increases in 2 h glucose and interleukin-6 concentrations, and in the prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance (16% of psychosis group v. 0% of control group). Adiponectin and C-reactive protein concentrations did not differ significantly between the two groups. These findings could not be attributed to differences in cortisol concentrations, smoking, gender, neighbourhood of residence, body mass index, aerobic conditioning, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or age. Conclusions Individuals with non-affective psychosis appear to have an increased prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance prior to antipsychotic treatment, as well as abnormalities in a related inflammatory molecule. These underlying problems may contribute to the metabolic side-effects of antipsychotic medications.

Background: Some studies suggest that schizophrenia may be associated with an increased risk of diabetes, independently of antipsychotic medications and other confounding factors. Previous studies have also suggested that there is an increased prevalence of diabetes in the relatives of schizophrenia probands. Method:First-degree siblings of schizophrenia probands (N = 6) and control subjects (N = 12) were administered a glucose tolerance test. Subjects were matched for gender, age, body mass index, neighborhood of residence, socio-economic status and smoking habits. Results:The siblings of schizophrenia probands had a significantly increased two-hour mean glucose concentration compared to the control subjects (respective means [SD] Conclusions: Although confirmation with larger samples is needed, these results and other studies suggest that diabetes may share familial risk factors with schizophrenia.

Chronic mood disorders have been associated with a shortened telomere, a marker of increased mortality rate and ageing, and impaired cellular immunity. However, treatment may confound these relationships. We examined the relationship of glucose tolerance, white blood cell count and telomere length to depression in newly diagnosed, antidepressant-naïve patients. Subjects with major depression (n=15), and matched healthy control subjects (n=70) underwent a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test and evaluation of blood cell count and telomere content. The depression group had significantly higher two-hour glucose concentrations and a lower lymphocyte count than control subjects (respective means [SD] for two-hour glucose were 125.0 mg/dL [67.9] vs 84.6 [25.6] (p<.001); for lymphocyte count 2.1 × 109/L [0.6] vs. 2.5 ×109/L [0.7] p=.028).Telomere content was significantly shortened in the depression group (87.9 [7.6]) compared to control subjects (101.0 [14.3]; p<0.01). Abnormal glucose tolerance, lymphopenia and a shortened telomere are present early in the course of depression independently of the confounding effect of antidepressant treatment, supporting the concept of major depression as an accelerated ageing disease.

Neurocognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia and is closely associated with functional outcome. The importance of cognitive assessment is broadly accepted today, and an easy-to-use, internationality validated cognitive assessment tool is needed by researchers and in daily clinical practice. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) has been validated in English, French, Japanese and Italian. It is as sensitive to cognitive dysfunction as a standard test battery, with the advantage of requiring less than 35minutes to complete. In our study, we tested the psychometric characteristics of a Spanish version of the BACS in 117 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and 36 healthy controls. All BACS cognitive subtests discriminated between patients and controls (P<.001), and the concurrent validity between the BACS and a traditional neuropsychological test battery was similar to that reported in other languages. We conclude that the BACS can facilitate the comparison of the cognitive performance of patients with schizophrenia in many different countries.