People with serious mental illness have higher rates of type 2 diabetes than the general public, but a new study finds that, compared to mentally healthy people, these patients often understand much less about their disease.

Sufferers of schizophrenia or major mood disorders were found to have a generally poor amount of knowledge about diabetes, according to researchers with the Sheppard Pratt Health System and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Both disorders impair cognitive function and can disrupt normal attentiveness, learning and motivations - attributes considered essential in the self-management of type 2 diabetes.

However, the researchers also found that diabetes knowledge can increase in these groups if individuals are given specific instructions about diabetes, and how to deal with it.

It is not clear why people with these mental illnesses are more prone to develop diabetes, the researchers said, although it could be linked to increased obesity or the use of antipsychotic medicines.

The findings appear in the September issue of the journal Psychosomatics.

SOURCE: Sheppard Pratt Health System, news release, Sept. 1, 2005