Overweight and Obesity in Saudi Patients with Schizophrenia Affects Cholesterol Concentration and Some Immune System Cells

Introduction: Schizophrenia (SZ), a prevalent and highly debilitating mental disease, is associated with high rates of overweight and obesity and effects on different systems of the body including the immune system. There are very few studies worldwide on weight measured by the body mass index (BMI) in patients with SZ and its effect on blood parameters, while there are no such studies in Saudi Arabia.

Aims: This study is the first to determine the effects of weight, measured by the BMI, on the differential complete blood count in patients with SZ. Additionally, the serum lipid profile was determined.

Methodology: Blood samples were collected from 45 randomly chosen male inpatients with SZ with an age range of 28-47 years and a mean age of 37 years.

Results: BMI categorization of the patients showed that 6.7% were underweight, 53.3% were healthy, 24.4% were overweight, and 15.6% were obese. Compared with the healthy BMI, significantly lower cholesterol levels and neutrophil counts were found for the overweight BMI group, while significantly higher cholesterol levels and monocyte percents were found for the obese BMI group.

Conclusion: Most subjects had a healthy BMI while overweight and obese subjects showed effects on cholesterol levels and counts of innate immune system cells.