Skip to main content
Log in

Current status of quality of life assessment in schizophrenic patients

  • Quality Of Life
  • Published:
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Though the need to evaluate the quality of life of schizophrenic patients is well recognized, there are significant issues that remain unsolved. Are these patients capable of judging their own quality of life or does their illness invalidate their responses? Are there any psychometrically valid instruments that enable us to assess quality of life in these patients? When should quality of life be assessed in schizophrenics? While the ERIQA European Group completes their work and provide us with some common guidelines concerning quality of life assessment in medicine, this article provides some simple action guidelines regarding these questions. These guidelines are the result of analyzing the most up-to-date literature in the field. It also takes a brief look at the most universally used tools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acquadro C (for the ERIQA Group) (2000) The European Regulatory Issues on Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment (ERIQA) Project: preliminary results and plans for the future. Quality of Life News Letter 24: 1–3

    Google Scholar 

  • Bech P (1993) Rating Scales for Psychopathology, Health Status and Quality of Life. A Compendium on Documentation in Accordance with the DSM-III-R and WHO Systems. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Bech P, Hjortso S (1990) Problems in measuring quality of life in schizophrenia. Nord Psykiatr Tidsskr 44/1: 77–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker M, Diamond R, Sainfort F (1993) Anew patient focused index for measuring quality of life in persons with severe and persistent mental illness. Qual Life Res 2:239–251

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobes J, Gonzalez MP (1997) Quality of life in schizophrenia. In: Katschnig H, Freeman H, Sartorius N (Eds) Quality of Life in Mental Disorders. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, pp 165–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Bobes J, González MP, Bascarän MT, Säiz PA, Bousoño M (1999) Quality of life assessment in schizophrenia. In: Guimön J, Sartorius N (Eds) Managed or Perish? The Challenges of Managed Mental Health Care in Europe. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp 239–248

    Google Scholar 

  • CPMP (Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products) (1998) Note for guidance on the clinical investigation of medicinal products in the treatment of schizophrenia. CPMP/EWP, London, 559/95

    Google Scholar 

  • Evenson RC, Vieweg BW (1998) Using a quality of life measure to investigate outcome in outpatient treatment of severely impaired psychiatric clients. Compr Psychiatry 39 (2): 57–62

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franz M, Meyer T, Spitznagel A, Schmidt H, Wening K, Gallhofer B (2001) Responsiveness of subjective quality of life assessment in schizophrenic patients: a quasi-experimental pilot study. Eur Psychiatry 16: 99–103

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gill T, Feinstein AA (1994) A critical appraisal of the quality of life measurements. JAMA 272:619–626

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrichs DW, Hanlon TE, Carpenter WT (1984) The Quality of Life Scale: an instrument for rating the schizophrenic deficit syndrome. Schizophr Bull 10 (3): 388–398

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Huxley P (1999) Advancing the methods for assessing quality of life. In: Priebe S, Oliver JPJ, Kaiser W (Eds) Quality of Life and Mental Health Care. Wrightson Biomedical Publishing Ltd, Petersfield, UK and Philadelphia, USA, pp 41–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehman AF (1983a) The well being of chronic mental patients: assessing their quality of life. Arch Gen Psychiatry 40: 369–373

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman AF (1983b) The effects of psychiatric symptoms on quality of life assessments among the chronically mentally ill. Eval Prog Planning 6:143–151

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman AF (1988) A quality of life interview for the chronically mentally ill. Eval Prog Planning 11: 51–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman AF, Ward NC, Linn LS (1982) Chronic mental patients: the quality of life issue. Am J Psychiatry 139:1271–1276

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman AF, Postrado LT, Rachoba LT (1993) Convergent validation of quality of life assessment for persons with severe mental illness. Qual Life Res 2:327–333

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Orley J, Kuyken W (1994) Quality of Life Assessment: International Perspectives. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Orley J, Saxena S, Herrmen H (1998) Quality of life and mental illness. Reflections from the perspective of the WHOQOL. Br J Psychiatry 172: 291–293

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sainfort F, Becker M, Diamond R (1996) Judgments of quality of life of individuals with severe mental disorders: patient self-report versus provider perspectives. Am J Psychiatry 153 (4): 497–502

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Skantze K, Malm U, Dencker SJ, May PR, Corrigan P (1992) Comparison of quality of life with standard of living in schizophrenic outpatients. Br J Psychiatry 161:797–801

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Voruganti L, Heslegrave R, Awad AG, Seeman MV (1998) Quality of life measurement in schizophrenia: reconciling the quest for subjectivity with the question of reliability. Psychol Med 28:165–172

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ware JE, Sherbourne CD (1992) The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Med Care 30 (6): 473–483

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ware JE, Gandek B, and the IQOLA Project Group (1994) The SF-36 Health Survey: development and use in mental health research and the IQOLA Project. Int J Ment Health 23 (2): 49–73

    Google Scholar 

  • WHOQOL Group (1998) Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Psychol Med 28: 551–558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (1993) WHOQOL Study Protocol. Division of Mental Health, WHO, Geneva, MNH/PSF/93.9

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julio Bobes.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bobes, J. Current status of quality of life assessment in schizophrenic patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 251 (Suppl 2), 38–42 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03035125

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03035125

Key words

Navigation