Journal of Psychiatry

Abstract

Effects of Selected Psychotropic Drugs on the Cardio-Respiratory Fitness and Body Composition of Patients with Serious Mental Illness in South East Nigeria

Peter O. Ibikunle*, Orovwigho A, Oguaghamba CI, Awhen P

Weight-gain in psychiatric population is a common clinical challenge. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of selected psychotropic drugs on the cardio-respiratory fitness and body composition of patients with serious mental illness (SMI).Forty four subjects (22 SMI and 22 apparently healthy subjects as control) participated in this quasi-experimental study, which were selected using purposive and consecutive sampling respectively. The VO2max was estimated from HR recovery (HRrec) after 15 seconds using the equation VO2max=111.33-0.42H for males and 65.81-0.1847H for females. Comparative analysis of the data was done using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, the inferential statistics of independent t-test with alpha level of significance of 0.05. Significant differences were recorded between the VO₂max of SMI as 53.72ml/kg/min and apparently healthy subjects as 64.44ml/kg/min. The sum of skin fold thick was seen to be 46.41+32.87mm for SMIs and 28.50+9.49mm for apparently healthy subjects. Patients with severe mental disorder had significantly lower VO₂max and higher body composition than the apparently healthy psychotropic naïve subjects. Thus, it is critical that clinicians take precautions to monitor and control weight-gain.

Published Date: 2020-09-07; Received Date: 2020-02-21