Adherence with NICE guidance on lifestyle advice for people with schizophrenia: a survey

Abstract

Background: Substantial weight gain is common in people taking antipsychotics. NICE recommends these patients are offered physical health screening and intervention. The STEPWISE trial is currently evaluating a lifestyle education programme in addition to usual care. However, it is difficult to define what constitutes “usual care”.

Aims: To define “usual care” for lifestyle management in people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and first episode psychosis in STEPWISE study sites.

Method: Ten NHS Mental Health Trusts participated in a bespoke survey based on NICE guidance.

Results: Eight trusts reported offering lifestyle education programmes. Nine Trusts reported offering smoking cessation support. Reported recording of biomedical measures varied.

Conclusions: No consistent lifestyle education programme is currently offered across UK NHS Mental Health Trusts. The survey benchmarks ‘usual care’ for the STEPWISE study on which changes can be measured.

Declarations of interest: DS is a topic expert for the current update of NICE guidance on psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people: These are his personal views and not those of NICE. RIGH received fees for lecturing, consultancy work and attendance at conferences from the following: Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Otsuka, Sanofi, Sunovion, Takeda, MSD. All remaining named authors did not disclose any declarations of interest.

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Identifiers

ORCID for R.I.G. Holt: orcid.org/0000-0001-8911-6744

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