Mental Health and Metabolic Abnormalities - Case Study Example

Student Name: Instructor’s Name: Title: Mental Health and Metabolic Abnormalities Course: Institution: Abstract The paper is a review of three articles: “Metabolic abnormalities in an early psychosis service: a retrospective, naturalistic cross-sectional study” by Curtis, J., Henry, C., Watkins, A., Newall, H., Samaras, K., & Ward, P.B; “Prevalence of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and metabolic abnormalities in schizophrenia over the course of the illness: a cross-sectional study by Hert, M De, Winkel, R van, Eyck, D Van,. Hanssens, L., Wampers, M., Scheen, A., and Peuskens, J.and “Double-blind comparison of first-and second-generation antipsychotics in early-onset schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder: findings from the treatment of early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders (TEOSS) study by Sikich, L., Frazier, J., McClellan, J., Findling, R., Vitiello, B., Ritz, L., and others. The three articles confirm the link between mental illness and metabolic abnormalities however; opinion is divided on the exact relationship. The review also shed some light on the other related complications like diabetes enhanced both by medications as well as individual lifestyles. Although the three articles suffer from different methodological flaws, they provide important data or information that can be of great significance to policy makers and health practitioners. The review recommends for the need reconsider out lifestyles. The significance of assessing or evaluating medications should not be underestimated as it has been established that there are some drugs which further complicates metabolic abnormalities as well as promoting the onset of diabetes. Lastly, this paper calls for more research on the cause-effect relationship and for future direction on appropriate interventions. Mental Health and Metabolic Abnormalities Introduction The relationship between mental illness and metabolic abnormalities is complex. Although many authors have a general consensus that there is a link between the two, the exact relationship is less defined or ambiguous. On one hand, studies suggest that metabolic abnormalities encourages mental illness, whilst others believe people suffering from mental illness are vulnerable to metabolic disorders and weight gain. Still others argue that it is the antipsychotics medications that promote such metabolic complications including diabetes. This paper presents an overview of some of the evidence on the relationship between metabolic disorders and mental illness while also highlighting other associated effects in order to inform the policy makers, health practitioners and the general population on the most appropriate intervention in dealing with mental health. Article 1: Metabolic abnormalities in an early psychosis service: a retrospective, naturalistic cross-sectional study by Curtis, J., Henry, C., Watkins, A., Newall, H., Samaras, K., & Ward, P.B This article is based on a cross-sectional study on mental health. The main purpose of this article is to examine or investigate the prevalence of metabolic abnormalities in a specialist early-intervention community mental health team. According to the article, there is an improved awareness or recognition of the consequences of weight gain in relation to metabolic problems in young people who were on atypical antipsychotic drugs for their first-episode psychosis. The article is based on a retrospective case record review with a sample of audit of 85 patients in the age group of between 16 to 17 years of age and who were in a long term, 2 years-Early Psychosis Service program covering the period of October, 2006 to June 2008. The study specifically considered those patients who had at least one metabolic measure defined in terms of: weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose and lipids. All based on metabolic syndrome identified as guided by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. The article reveals that more than a half of males(55%) and only about forty two percent of female patients were either suffering from obesity or overweight in a at least 8month treatment. This period was closely linked with a relatively higher BMI (r = 0.28, P  Read More