Objective To assess the eating behavior, food practices, nutritional and metabolic profiles of patients with schizophrenia undergoing treatment. Methods Cross-sectional exploratory descriptive qualitative study used a semi-structured questionnaire on the eating behavior, food practices, and perception of changes after the initiation of drug therapy and a quantitative method using anthropometric and body composition measurements, metabolic parameters, and 5-day dietary records to analyze nutrient ingestion of patients with schizophrenia in an outpatient clinic at a tertiary hospital (n=33). The qualitative data were analyzed and coded by three researchers and quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive exploratory statistics. Results The results of this study showed that schizophrenic patients presented high prevalence of excess weight (71.0%), metabolic syndrome (42.0%), dyslipidemia (62.0%), changes in appetite (76.0%), and increase in energy intake (74.2%), associated with important irregularities in eating behavior and food practices (such as irregularity of meals, emotional intake, high carbohydrate and fat intake, and low energy expenditure) and lifestyle (changes in social and work routines). Conclusion This eating profile may interact synergistically with psychotropic drugs to contribute to weight gain and metabolic changes in schizophrenia. Nutrition education may prevent and monitor the risk of metabolic and nutrition problems, irrespective of the medications used.

Our objective was to determine if automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) leads to changes in nutritional parameters of patients treated by continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Twenty-six patients (15 males; 50.5 ± 14.3 years) were evaluated during CAPD while training for APD and after 3 and 6 months of APD. Body fat was assessed by the sum of skinfold thickness and the other body compartments were assessed by bioelectrical impedance. During the 6-month follow-up, 12 patients gained more than 1 kg (GW group), 8 patients lost more than 1 kg (LW group), and 6 patients maintained body weight (MW group). Except for length on dialysis that was longer for the LW group compared with the GW group, no other differences were found between the groups at baseline. After 6 months on APD, the LW group had a reduction in body fat (24.5 ± 7.7 vs 22.1 ± 7.3 kg; P = 0.01), body cell mass (22.6 ± 6.2 vs 21.6 ± 5.8 kg, P = 0.02) and phase angle (5.4 ± 0.9 vs 5.1 ± 0.8 degrees, P = 0.004). In the GW group, body fat (25 ± 7.6 vs 27.2 ± 7.6 kg, P = 0.001) and body cell mass (20.1 ± 3.9 vs 20.8 ± 4.0 kg, P = 0.05) were increased. In the present study, different patterns of change in body composition were found. The length of previous dialysis treatment seems to be the most important factor in determining these nutritional modifications.