The assessment of quality of life in clinical practice in patients with schizophrenia.

The assessment of quality of life in clinical practice in patients with schizophrenia. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2014 Jun;16(2):185-95 Authors: Karow A, Wittmann L, Schöttle D, Schäfer I, Lambert M Abstract The aim of the present article is to review QoL scales used in studies investigating patients with schizophrenia over the past 5 years, and to summarize the results of QoL assessment in clinical practice in these patients. Literature available from January 2009 to December 2013 was identified in a PubMed search using the key words "quality of life" and "schizophrenia" and in a cross-reference search for articles that were particularly relevant. A total of n=432 studies used 35 different standardized generic and specific QoL scales in patients with schizophrenia. Affective symptoms were major obstacles for QoL improvement in patients with schizophrenia. Though positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive functioning may be seen as largely independent parameters from subjective QoL, especially in cross-sectional trials, long-term studies confirmed a critical impact of early QoL improvement on long-term symptomatic and functional remission, as well as of early symptomatic response on long-term QoL. Results of the present review suggest that QoL is a valid and useful outcome criterion in patients with schizophrenia. As such, it should be consistently applied in clinical trials. Understanding the relationship between symptoms a...
Source: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Dialogues Clin Neurosci Source Type: research