Quality of life in schizophrenia

Abstract

Skantze K, Malm U, Dencker SJ, May PRA. Quality of life in schizophrenia. The strong move from inpatient treatment to community care for chronic schizophrenic patients made it urgent to investigate their quality of life and living conditions in the community. This paper describes 61 schizophrenic outpatients' own view of their quality of life, obtained through the Quality of Life Self-Report (QLS-100). This new method includes a semistruetured interview, dealing with satisfaction and dissatisfaction as reported in the QLS-100. The self-reported quality of life is reviewed in relation to facts about the patients' standard of living, housing, sex, age, and survival time in the community. The quality of life of schizophrenic patients is also presented in comparison with a contrast group of university students. The outcome indicates that it is neither possible nor adequate to infer a person's quality of life from his standard of living, but that quality of life should be evaluated by the person himself. The areas of life and living most often reported to be unsatisfactory were concerned with lack of work and activities, dissatisfaction with inner experiences and mental health, lack of contact with others, and complaints of too little money. The major conclusion is that many schizophrenic outpatients have to face a rather low quality of life, even if they have good physical and social standards of living.