Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Mental health providers at Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System (VAPAHCS) play a vital role in promoting the wellness of Veterans seeking mental health services through prescribing practices and education of healthy lifestyles, increased physical activities, well-balanced nutrition, weight management, and monitoring of blood glucose levels to prevent metabolic syndrome. The concept of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of antipsychotic-induced metabolic syndrome and provider’s proactive engagement with patients to mitigate cardiometabolic disorders. “Risk of Metabolic Syndrome Among Veterans Taking Antipsychotics” is a proposed retrospective pilot study that will utilize sociodemographic and clinical data extracted from medical records of Veterans seeking mental health services at VAPAHCS from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015. Prevalence will be measured by the presence of three of the five criteria of metabolic syndrome identified by the American Heart Association. Patterns of providers’ prescribing practices, such as timeliness of medication changes given patients’ abnormal lab values and physical measurements, will be analyzed. As preparatory for research, the proponents of this study collected 1,529 charts to review. Implications: Cardiometabolic disorders are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among patients with mental illnesses. Furthermore, the use of second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) presents a significant clinical dilemma, due to the association of SGAs with obesity, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia, which are hallmarks in the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Knowledge from this study will be fundamental in the implementation of best practices in prescribing medications and promoting wellness of mental health patients at VAPAHCS.