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Frailty and Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

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Abstract

Frailty, a state of reduced physiological reserve, has not been studied in consumers with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, despite known elevated rates of comorbidity and psychosocial impairment. This study applies a frailty index to the electronic medical records of 78 adults with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, aged 18–64 years, to determine the prevalence and characteristics of frailty (defined as a frailty index score > 0.21). The mean frailty index score was 0.24 (SD = 0.091, range = 0.061–0.54), with 52.6% of the population categorised as frail (40.0% in those aged 18–39 years). Frailty was positively correlated with age and psychiatric illness severity. This study provides novel evidence that individuals with treatment-resistant schizophrenia have a high rate of frailty and become frail at a younger age. Routine frailty assessments could be used to trigger the delivery of appropriate interventions, which have the potential to improve life expectancy and quality of life.

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Funding

DS is supported in part by an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship GNT1194635 (2021-2025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ella Pearson & Elizabeth Coulson

  2. Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Services, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Dan Siskind & Nicola Warren

  3. Department of Geriatrics, Princess Alexandra Hospital, 199 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ruth Hubbard, Emily Gordon & Nicola Warren

  4. Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Dan Siskind, Ruth Hubbard, Emily Gordon, Urska Arnautovska & Nicola Warren

Authors
  1. Ella Pearson
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  2. Dan Siskind
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  4. Emily Gordon
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  5. Elizabeth Coulson
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  6. Urska Arnautovska
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  7. Nicola Warren
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Correspondence to Nicola Warren.

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Conflict of interest

NW has received speaker fees from Otsuka, Lundbeck and Jaansen. For the remaining authors, none were declared.

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Pearson, E., Siskind, D., Hubbard, R. et al. Frailty and Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Community Ment Health J 59, 105–109 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00998-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00998-8

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