We conducted a systematic review of the literature reviewing
studies in English language published from 1950 to the 1st of
November 2011, and reporting dietary habits in patients with
schizophrenia spectrum disorders, identified by searches on
Pubmed, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Embase, Ovid of Medline,
Psychoinfo and ISI web of Knowledge. Search terms over full text
included the combination of the following keywords: DIET or
DIETARY or NUTRITION or NUTRITIONAL or EATING or FOOD,
crossed with SCHIZOPHRENIA or PSYCHOSIS or PSYCHOTIC and
with LIFESTYLE or METABOLIC or HEALTH HABITS. More than 700
articles (n ¼ 783, excluding duplicates) were found through the
investigation of such databases. After title, abstract or full-text
reading, we selected a total of 89 papers; after checking references
from these studies other 9 articles were added, obtaining
a total of 98 papers. Among these, we excluded papers focused on:
1) eating habits and their relationship with prevention, psychopathology,
treatment and outcome of schizophrenia (n ¼ 22); 2)
trials to improve dietary habits and manage weight gain (n ¼ 25);
3) reviews on dietary habits of patients with schizophrenia (n ¼ 3);
4) studies dealing with food habits of patients with schizophrenia,
which matched cases and controls for diet or did not provide any
information on the consumption of macro-nutrients or groups of
food (n ¼ 17). Eventually, we reviewed thirty-one (n ¼ 31) studies
concerning the dietary patterns and their effects on metabolic
parameters in patients with schizophrenia. Table 1 summarizes our
methods.