Differences in glucose tolerance between deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia

Some studies suggest that schizophrenia is associated with an increased risk of diabetes independently of antipsychotic use. People with deficit schizophrenia, which is characterized by primary (or idiopathic), enduring negative symptoms, differ from those with nondeficit schizophrenia on course of illness, treatment response, risk factors, and biological correlates. We hypothesized that deficit and nondeficit subjects would also differ with regard to glucose tolerance. Newly diagnosed, antipsychotic-naïve subjects with nonaffective psychosis and matched control subjects were administered a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (GTT). Two-hour glucose concentrations were significantly higher in the nondeficit patients (N = 23; mean [SD] of 121.6 [42.0]) than in deficit (N = 23; 100.2 [23.1]) and control subjects (N = 59; 83.8 [21.9]); the deficit subjects also had significantly higher two-hour glucose concentrations than did the control subjects. These results provide further support that the deficit group has a distinctive etiopathophysiology.