Metabolic syndrome and features in children and adolescents diagnosed with mood disorders and psychotic disorders

Objective: Metabolic syndrome (METS) is described as cluster of risk factors including central obesity, hyperten-sion, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia. The prevalence of METs has been associated with increased symptom severity and antidepressants utilization in many psychopathologies among adult population. We aimed to evaluate the effect of psychopathologies and antipsychotics in METs devel- opment, additionally to determine METs characteristics in children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders. Methods: Thirty children and adolescents aged between 13-20 years old of whom were diag-nosed with bipolar mood disorders, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and schizophreniform according to Diag-nostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria were compared with a 30 healthy children and adolescents in present study. The anthropometric measurements including body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) as well as blood pressure measurements were documented. In addition, total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), HDL, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were measured and METs assessed according to the IDF (International Diabetes Foundation) criteria in participants. Results: Overall the prevalence of METs was 20% (n=12) in our study. Among the METs patients, nine were (27%) in the case group, three were (10%) were in control group. The mean BMI, body weight, WC, serum TG and FBG values of the METs group were found to be statistically higher than the healthy control group. Moreover it was also found that utilization of mood-stabilizing drugs has a statistically significant effect on the development of METs. Conclusion: Psychopathologies and antipsychotic utilization have associated with an increased risk for the development of metabolic disorders and METs in the children and adolescents population. In this respect our findings may provide a new approach with the management of treatment strategies particularly in children and adolescents with high risk of METs. [Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2019; 20(1.000): 76-83]