Individuals living with schizophrenia are 2-3 times more likely to experience type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes medication adherence is essential to reduce morbidity and mortality in this population.
We conducted a meta-analysis of diabetes medication adherence among people with schizophrenia, and compared this to those without schizophrenia.
A systematic search strategy was used to identify all articles reporting adherence to diabetes medications among patients with schizophrenia.
56% of individuals with schizophrenia (n=33680) were considered “adherent” (i.e. >80% adherence over 12-24 month) to diabetes medication, which was significantly more than those without schizophrenia
Factors which were positively associated with diabetes medication adherence were age, number of outpatient visits, along with multiple medication administration variables.
Future prospective research should examine diabetes monitoring, medication prescription, and subsequent adherence in fully representative samples. Novel interventions for maximizing compliance to diabetes medication in this vulnerable population should also be explored.
I also have diabetes 2. I drink Glucophage in the morning and at night. I do however struggle with a sweet tooth so I eat chocolates which is actually forbidden. I do test my blood sugar levels quite often.
I would expect people with schizophrenia to be more adherent to taking diabetes medication than people without schizophrenia because people with schizophrenia are taking more medications that require adherence than people without schizophrenia.
The bigger question is why are people with schizophrenia more likely to have diabetes than people without schizophrenia? It’s unclear to me if neuroleptics, per se, increase the risk of diabetes, but I do believe one factor is that the sedative effects of neuroleptics increase a sedentary lifestyle. Thus while diet and exercise decreases the risk of diabetes for all people, they’re more of a factor in decreasing the risk of diabetes among people with schizophrenia.
I’m pretty sure I get the reason for this study. The comparison between taking antipsychotics and taking diabetes medication is one that is made often by doctors and therapists. While both diseases are disabling in different ways I would think that taking insulin or glucophage is much easier than taking latuda for example. Unless of course the schizophrenia interferes with someones ability to remember to take their meds and then this study would make a good case for long acting injectables
I think it is because people with Sz know that they will get Type 2 Diabetes from the medication they take. Plus, it’s easier to add an extra medication to the ones that you already take. The habit is there.
They want to know if it’s the meds that suck for schizophrenia because no one wants to take them.
Diabetes on the other hand the meds don’t suck as bad so they want to know how many people do take them.