The change of quality of life and clinical picture in schizophrenia

The aim of the study was to determine how the quality of life changes during antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia and whether there is any correlation between the change of quality of life and the change of clinical picture in 232 patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia treated for 8 weeks with antipsychotic medication. The mental status improved significantly during treatment while patients' quality of life improved insignificantly. Severity of schizophrenic symptoms correlated negatively with patients' quality of life before treatment but not after treatment. Clinical improvement of schizophrenic symptomatology correlated negatively with the improvement of patients' quality of life. After treatment the quality of life was significantly worse in patients who had distinct depression before treatment, than in those without depression or with only slight depression before treatment.