Basal Metabolic Rate Related to Metabolic and Clinical Features in Male Patients With First-Episode Psychosis

We investigated basal metabolic rate (BMR) in male patients with drug -naive first-episode psychosis (FEP) in order to explore the hypothesis that a reduced BMR plays a role in severity of illness. The study was conducted with a total of 59 drug-naive FEP patients, 41 of whom were severe and 18 nonse-vere. BMR was measured using Body -Gem Analyzer 3.0 Metabolism Mea-surement Device indirect calorimetry. At the same time, the clinical charac-teristics and laboratory tests of the par-ticipants were measured. The patients were divided into two groups as severe and nonsevere according to the Clini-cal Global Impression-Severity. At the end of measurement, the BMR was compared between patients with se-vere and nonsevere illness. BMR of pa-tients with severe illness was found to be statistically significantly lower than BMR of patients with nonsevere illness. Another finding of the study is that in patients with severe FEP we can expect BMR values below the cut-off value of 1,830 kcal/day. The study provides evi-dence that BMR is reduced with severity of illness in drug-naive FEP patients. [Psychiatr Ann. 2023;53(6):264-269.]