Quality of life in schizophrenics with and without the deficit syndrome

We investigated the relations between deficit as part of schizophrenic symptomatology and the popular but unclear concept of quality of life (QOL). In a 47-patient sample, subjective QOL was compared in schizophrenics with and without the deficit syndrome. Self- and hetero-rated QOL is more impaired in deficit patients. Differences between deficit and non-deficit groups are more significant as the index used for measuring QOL gets less "behavioral" and more "psycho-pathological". These results are consistent with existing literature. The "behavioral" dimensions of Heinrichs' quality of life scale (QLS) are less discriminative between deficit and non-deficit schizophrenics, but they are more independent of the symptoms. They might have a special clinical meaning, which needs to be defined. The concepts of QOL (as used in QLS) and deficit symptomatology are partially redundant. QLS might be an inappropriate, or at least un-specific measure of QOL.