Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are both associated with increased levels of serum lipids compared to healthy controls. However, it is not clear whether patients with schizophrenia differ from bipolar patients in terms of serum lipid concentrations and hyperlipidemia rates.

The serum lipid levels of 160 patients with schizophrenia and 41 patients with bipolar disorder (manic episode), consecutively admitted in an acute psychiatric ward during a 2-year period, were assessed.

There was no significant difference in serum cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins, low-density lipoproteins or triglycerides levels between the two groups of patients, after controlling for age. A considerable rate of schizophrenia patients demonstrated high cholesterol levels (>200mg/dl; 45.6%), whereas 15.6% of them had elevated triglyceride levels (>150 mg/dl). In bipolar patients, the rates for both

hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia were 29.3%. The above rates did not differ significantly between the two groups of patients.

Acutely hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder did not differ in serum lipid concentrations and hyperlipidemia rates.