QUALITY-OF-LIFE AND SCHIZOPHRENIA - NO SUBJECTIVE DIFFERENCES AMONG 4LIVING-CONDITIONS

One hundred and fifty-two schizophrenic patients, aged 21-87 years and living in 4 different kinds of habitats (mental hospital, group home, treatment collective, and their own flats), were interviewed with the Quality of Life Scale (QLS-100) and rated by means of the 24-item ver sion of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). A discrepancy betwe en a patient's QLS ratings and objective life circumstances (low QLS d iscontent scores in spite of poor or appalling life conditions) was sc ored as present or non-present (discrepancy score (DS)). In spite of b eing conceptually 14-dimensional, the QLS data were highly homogeneous (alpha = 0.93). Therefore, a QLS discontent sum score was computed. T he difference in habitats did not influence QLS scores significantly, even when corrected for age differences, nor did sex. Higher age, pres ence of negative/disorganization symptoms, and absence of affective sy mptoms were associated with lower QLS discontent scores and a high fre quency of DS. These findings suggest that a substantial proportion of schizophrenic patients are unable to judge their life quality by using instruments such as the QLS-100, which in turn raises important metho dologic and ethical issues on how to assess and improve psychotic pati ents' quality of life, both perceived acid real.