Short Sleep Duration Insomnia May Be Associated With Increased Cardiovascular Disease in Schizophrenics

Abstract

PURPOSE: Insomnia is highly prevalent amongst patients with mental illness and has been implicated as both a risk factor and marker of disease severity in various psychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia. Recent studies have delineated distinct subtypes of insomnia based on overall sleep duration, with the <> variant associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease and stroke in a community-based cohort. However, no previous study has examined this relationship in schizophrenic patients. We evaluated the association between short sleep duration insomnia and select cardiovascular diseases in schizophrenics. METHODS: A total of 2,152 participants enrolled in the multi-center Genomic Psychiatric Cohort (GPC) self-reported their baseline sleep duration and medical comorbidities. In participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective-depressed disorder, 1417 had symptoms of insomnia (mean age 42.4 years, 62% male, 55% non-white). This group was further stratified into <> insomnia, defined as sleep time <0.05), hypertension (n=127, OR 1.42; 95% CI 1.10-1.84; p < 0.05) and stroke (n=26, OR 2.54; 95% CI 1.54-4.33; p <0.05) when compared to those who self-reported a normal sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenics who self-reported insomnia symptoms and short sleep duration may have increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease and stroke. Further study to examine the strength of the association and possible confounders is warranted.