How do Symptoms and Level of Functioning Affect the Quality of Life in Schizophrenia? a Study on the Community Mental Health Centre of Ferrara (Italy)

IntroductionA specific interest regarding quality of life(QoL) of patients with schizophrenia dates back to the de-institutionalisation process. Italy worked on decentralising its mental health services since 1978. It was apparent that capturing psychopathological symptoms alone was not sufficient to reflect relevant outcomes. In particular, information on the social functioning and quality of life is regarded as essential for evaluating long-term outcomes.ObjectiveThe relationship between Quality of life and global functioning and symptoms in outpatients with Schizophrenia.MethodIn the present study we examined all the subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia attending a same Community Mental Health Centre in Northern Italy, in 2008. Each patient completed the WHO QoL Instrument - Brief and was administerd the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-24 to assess psychiatric symptoms and the VADO Personal and social Functioning Scale to assess the level of functioning.ResultsThe population studied subjects showed an intermediate satisfaction on the overall QoL and health; these data can be juxtaposed to the national standard sample rates. QoL resulted positively associated to personal and social functioning, while it was negatively related to psychiatric symptoms.ConclusionThe QoL in our study is not extremely negative, though schizophrenia is an often an impairing chronic illness. Furthermore, the present research on social functioning, psychiatric symptoms and QoL in people with schizophrenia suggest that symptoms, but, above all, personal and social functioning are important elements to determine QoL. These studies point to the importance of looking beyond symptom-reduction strategies for improving QoL in schizophrenia.