Key clinical point: Schizophrenia patients with a metabolically abnormal obese (MAO) phenotype have reduced negative symptoms compared with metabolically healthy normal-weight (MHNW) individuals.

Major finding: The schizophrenia group had significantly higher prevalence of MAO phenotype vs the control group (P = .037). Patients with schizophrenia and the MAO phenotype had significantly lower negative factor (P less than .001), cognitive factor (P =.033), and total positive and negative syndrome scale scores (P = .039) vs MHNW individuals. After adjustments, the difference in negative factor alone remained significant (P = .003).

Study details: The data come from an analysis of 329 patients with schizophrenia and 175 controls without schizophrenia and mental abnormalities matched for age and sex.

Disclosures: The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Research and Development Projects in Anhui Province, the Scientific Research Foundation of the Institute for Translational Medicine, and the National Clinical Key Specialty Capacity Building Project. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.