Weight gain in secure psychiatric settings
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Weight gain in secure psychiatric settings: The role of psychological factors in the mediation of obesity in secure services.
IRAS ID
238961
Contact name
Joseph L Davies
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Caswell Clinic, Glanrhyd Hospital
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 28 days
Research summary
Research has indicated that obesity rates are high among psychiatric populations with literature suggesting that inpatients on average gain three to five pounds a month during initial treatment (Wetterling, 2001; Shin, Barron, Chiu, Hyun Jang & Bang, 2002). This issue can have detrimental implications for the patient group with life expectancy being 20 years shorter than the general populations (Laursen, 2011). It has been suggested that the leading cause of death in schizophrenics is preventable physical illnesses such as heart disease, respiratory disease and type two diabetes (Hennekens et al., 2005; Subashini, Deepa, Padmavati, Thera & Mohan, 2011; Tay, Nurjono & Lee, 2013).
The effects of psychotropic medication could account for weight gain in schizophrenics. Research has suggested a number of psychological concepts could explain overeating, however. These include; attentional bias (Seage & Lee, 2016), cognitive deficit (Wang, Chan, Ren & Yan, 2016), food proximity (Lowe et al., 2009), eating restraint (Anglè et al., 2009), adverse childhood experiences (Public Health Wales, 2015), attachment style (Collins, 1996), impulsivity (Schag et al., 2013) and delayed gratification (Schlam et al., 2013).
The proposed study would look to assess patients who take anti-psychotic medications in relation to these psychological concepts. This will involve participants completing a number of psychometrically robust and validated measures. The project is funded chiefly by the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS), with part funding coming from the partner organisation, the Caswell Clinic in Glanrhyd Hospital, Bridgend.
REC name
Wales REC 2
REC reference
18/WA/0256
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion