Subjective quality of life and basic psychotic symptoms in schizophrenic patients in various health care facilities. A preliminary study

Abstract

Introduction. Subjective quality of life in schizophrenia and its relationship with the basic psychotic symptomatology of the disease has gained great importance over the last few years. This is due, firstly, to the desinstitutionalization of these patients, who become integrated in health care facilities, which are increasingly less regimented; and secondly, to the development of new antipsychotic medicines. The objective of this cross-sectional study is to measure the relationship between subjective quality of life and basic psychotic symptomatology in patients with schizophrenia attended to in various health care facilities belonging to a mental health network. Methodology. A total of 50 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia belonging to five health care facilities were assessed. Their subjective quality of life was measured by the Cuestionario Sevilla de Calidad de Vida (CSCV) (Seville quality of life questionnaire). Basic psychotic symptomatology was assessed by the Frankfurter Beschwerde Fragebogen (FBF-3) (The Frankfurt psychopathological inventory). Results. It can be seen that the improvement of subjective quality of life is related to a decrease of schizophrenic people‘s basic psychotic symptomatology. However, such a relationship is not evident when a diversity of health care facilities is compared. Conclusions. The relationship between subjective quality of life and basic psychotic symptomatology in patients with schizophrenia highlights the need to use not only pharmacological treatment but also other cognitive and psychosocial interventions which attend to the subjective experience of the disease in order to improve the quality of life of these patients, irrespective of the health care facilities.