Introduction

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Abstract
It has been known for over a century that abnormalities of glucose metabolism are more common in those suffering from certain forms of mental illness (Kasanin, 1926), but only in the past few years has there been any serious attempt to establish the exact nature of the association. We are now in a situation where a great deal of data and opinions have surfaced in a short space of time. In order to bring this body of data into a single forum to debate its significance and – more importantly – to examine how it should influence practice, it was felt appropriate to convene a consensus meeting on diabetes and schizophrenia. The aims of the meeting were to bring a group of interested and informed clinicians and pharmacologists together to present and debate all the currently available data, opinions and practices from around the world that relate to the association between schizophrenia and glucose abnormalities. In order to do this we felt it crucial to involve experts not only in psychiatry but also in diabetology. One of the major roles of the convened group was to give some sort of hierarchical basis to the many types of data that have been published. The prime focus of the group was to agree a consensus statement that would give practising psychiatrists and diabetologists a clear message as to the current state of knowledge, beliefs and potential best practices.