Mental disorders, treatment response, mortality and serum cholesterol: a new holistic look at old data.

BACKGROUND: The importance of cholesterol for physical and psychological well-being has been recognized for several decades. Changes in serum cholesterol levels may have a direct impact on mental performance, behavior, treatment response, survival and expected lifetime duration.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between various mental disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders) and cholesterol levels, and to discuss the possible treatment implications.

METHOD: A MEDLINE search, citing articles from 1966 onward, supplemented by a review of bibliographies, was conducted to identify relevant studies. Criteria used to identify studies included (1) English language, (2) published studies with original data in peer-reviewed journals.

RESULTS: Clinical investigations of cholesterolemia in patients with major mental disorders have produced very conflicting results. Hypercholesterolemia has been reported in patients with schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD. Low cholesterol level has been reported in patients with major depression, dissociative disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder. It seems that both high and low serum total cholesterol may be associated with a higher risk of the premature death.

CONCLUSION: Our current knowledge on the relation between cholesterolemia and mental disorders is poor and controversial. No definite or reliable insight into a pathophysiological link between cholesterol levels and mental disorders, treatment response and mortality rate is available. The lipoprotein profile, rather than total cholesterol levels, seems to be important.