General practice interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in patients with severe mental illness: A scoping review

by Aswath Krishna Muthuraman, Nandakumar Ravichandran, Niamh Murphy, John Broughan, Eleni Niarchou, Brian O’Donoghue, Joseph Gallagher, Kenneth McDonald, Janis Morrissey, Walter Cullen Background People with severe mental illness (SMI), including bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia, face significantly increased morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Common CVD risk factors in these populations comprise health behaviours such as smoking and poor diet, and physical factors, including diabetes mellitus, obesity and dyslipidaemia.

Thus, there is a need to identify interventions to prevent CVD in SMI patients, for which general practice may be ideal for delivery. This scoping review aimed to explore the interventions to reduce CVD risk in patients with SMI in primary care, with a focus on general practice.

Methods This scoping review was guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s six-step methodological framework, barring step six – consultation. A systematic search was performed across four electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, APA PsycINFO and CINAHL, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.