Promotion of Physical Health and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Patients with Mental Disorders

The increased prevalence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome, has resulted in a significantly lower life expectancy for patients with severe mental disorders (SMD), namely major depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The adoption of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (such as poor eating and physical activity habits, heavy smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, and reduced access to screening programs and checkup visits for physical illnesses) is primarily to blame for the high rates of comorbidity between mental and physical illnesses. Additional contributing factors include some characteristics of mental disorders, such as a decline in cognitive functioning, patient’s reluctance to attend checkup visits, the neglect of physical health needs by patients and their caregivers, and the metabolic side effects of several psychotropic drugs. The need to improve the physical healthcare provided to people with SMD through medical screenings, monitoring, and regular checkups, as well as the need to provide psychosocial interventions aimed at modifying risk factors—i.e., unhealthy lifestyle behaviors—has been recently pointed out. Additionally, changes to the healthcare system and delivery of care could be required to address the issue of poor medical healthcare offered to these patients. In this chapter we will provide; (1) an overview of the most frequent comorbidities reported by patients with severe mental illnesses; (2) recommendations for the monitoring of their physical health; and (3) a description of the efficacy of behavioral lifestyle interventions to improve physical health of SMD people.