Quality of life ; Chronec schizpphernea ; Psychosocial treatment program
Abstract
Objects : Recent studies of psychosocial adjustment after hospitalization have found that the combination of maintenance antipsychotic drug treatment and psychosocial treatment including psychoeducational program are highly predictive of social rehabilitation and reduction of subsequent relapse. Two groups of patients with refractory chronic schizophrenia were preliminarily compared to determine the effect of a psychosocial treatment program on the quality of life in refractory chronic schizophrenics in an open comparative trial.
Methods : One group(N=11) was assigned to approximately six months of the psychosocial treatment program(including psychoeducation program and activity program such as interpersonal relationship program, social skill training, self management program, outings, etc), in a group format, twice a week and a fixed maintenance dosage of clozapine ; while scale(QLS) was used to provide an objective measure of changes in patient's psychosocial functioning and a general assessment of psychopathology was made using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS).
Results : Both BPRS total positive score and the QLS total score, especially in the intrapsychic foundation factor of the scale showed a statistically significant improvement in the psychosocial treatment group. But there was no significant change in both BPRS and QLS scores over a 6-month period in the non-psychosocial treatment group. A significant negative correlation was found between the negative symptom and changes of QLS total, instrumental role and common object and activities scores respectively after receiving a 6-month of the psychosocial treatment program.
Conclusion : These results suggest that a psychosocial treatment program including the integration of psychoeducation and a skill training oriented activity program serve as an outpatient treatment modality to improve the quality of the life in refractory chronic schizophrenia. To further clarify the effect of psychosocial treatment in chronic schizophrenia, a randomized trial should be done.