Medical Co-Morbidity in Schizophrenia from Rural Region of Central India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The patients with schizophrenia have higher mortality rates and shortened life span. The major causes of this excess mortality are medical disease, unhealthy lifestyle, substance misuse, poor compliance or treatment refusal, and suicide among unnatural causes. The peoples diagnosed with schizophrenia expect to live 9-12 years lesser than those in the general population on average. Objectives: To study the prevalence of medical co-morbidities; association of medical co-morbidities with socio-demographic and clinical variables among schizophrenia patients; and to determine the association of I.C.D. -10 subtypes of schizophrenia with medical co-morbidities. Materials and methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 patients over a period of 4 months as per defined inclusion and exclusion criteria at tertiary care center. A semi-structured proforma, designed for the study was used to collect the sociodemographic and clinical details. Results: Co-morbid medical illness was reported in 22% of patients. The most common physical illness was endocrinological disorders (31.82%). The patients who had higher age and exposure to psychotropic medications were significantly associated with medical co-morbidities (p<0.05). The co morbid medical illnesses were not significantly associated with type of medication used, subtype of schizophrenia and family history of mental illness (p>0.05) whereas reported significant association with history of substance use (p<0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of medical co-morbidities was found to be 22%, lower than that in previous literature. Sometimes the physical illnesses remain unrecognized in such patients so integrated approaches require for prevention and treatment modalities.