It is known that psychiatric disorders often lead to unhealthy life styles and reduced quality of life, which can lead to weight gain, possibly enhanced by psychotropic treatment.

Solutions for Wellness (SfW) is an educational program for life style changes for psychiatric patients. This observational study evaluated the effectiveness of SfW.

30 psychiatric clinics collected data for the study. Quality of life was measured by the Subjective Wellbeing under Neuroleptics scale (SWN), at baseline and at the end of SfW participation at 3 months. Demographic, disease and treatment data were also collected. A control group consisted of patients from centers that did not offer the SfW program.

314 patients were enrolled in SfW group, 59 in the control group. 54% of the total group had schizophrenia, 67% received atypical antipsychotics. The baseline mean BMI in the SfW group was 31.7 kg/m2.

SWN scores for the SfW group improved significantly from baseline to the end of the program (mean increase 3.3 ± 12.2), but not significantly more than for the control group (mean difference 1.4, p = 0.4158 (t-test)). The SfW group demonstrated a significant decrease in BMI, weight and waist circumference from baseline. The decreases were significantly larger compared to the control group for BMI (p = 0.0018) and weight (p = 0.0027) (t-tests).

Patients in the SfW program improved in BMI, weight, waist circumference and SWN total score. Changes in weight and BMI were significantly larger in the SfW group compared to the control group.