Background: Previous studies on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients with bipolar disorder have reported rates 11% and 79% higher than in their respective general populations. This study evaluates the prevalence of MetS in a group of 194 Spanish patients with bipolar disorder.
Methods: Naturalistic, multicentre, cross-sectional study. Patients were evaluated for presence of MetS according to modified NCEP ATP III criteria.
Results: Mean age was 46.6 (SD 13.9); 49.2% were male. Forty-six percent were in remission. Patients were receiving 2.9 (SD 1.3) drugs. Overall prevalence of MetS was 22.4%. Fifty-four percent met the criterion for abdominal obesity, 36.1% for hypertriglyceridemia, 38.2% for low HDL cholesterol, 20.9% for hypertension, and 12.2% for high fasting glucose. The multivariate analysis for MetS retained only the BMI variable in the model.
Limitations: Cross-sectional study design.
Conclusions: The prevalence of MetS in patients with bipolar disorder is 58% higher than that reported for the general Spanish population. MetS is associated with BMI. Clinicians should be aware of this issue and appropriately monitor patients with bipolar disorder for MetS as part of the standard of care for these patients.