Diabetes Screening Among Underserved Adults With Severe Mental Illness Who Take Antipsychotic Medications.

Abstract

RESEARCH LETTER Adults in the United States with severe mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (totaling approximately 7 million), are estimated to die, on average, 25 years earlier than the general population, largely of premature cardiovascular disease.1 The Institute of Medicine2 has called for improvements in health care for this population. Severe mental illness is associated with elevated risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus.3 Treatment with antipsychotic medications contributes to risk, with most evidence focused on second-generation antipsychotic medications, but similar increases in risk are reported with older and newer medications.4 The American Diabetes Association5 recommends annual diabetes screening for patients treated with antipsychotic medications, and public health administrators have targeted this population for improved health screening.6 To our knowledge, no studies have examined screening rates in this highest-risk population of adults with SMI because of limitations in public health medical records. We examined diabetes screening among publicly insured adults with SMI taking antipsychotic medications using matched administrative data for physical and mental health care services in a large health care system. We measured diabetes screening prevalence among patients with SMI treated with antipsychotic medications and assessed characteristics predictive of screening.