[Monitoring of quality of life--review]

Over the past few years, the study of the Quality of Life (QOL) has become a focus of clinical research, with respect to its importance in the assessment of functioning. In many chronic illnesses, a linear relationship cannot be found between the alleviation of symptoms and long-term functioning. Therefore, the efficacy of therapy cannot be estimated only by symptom scales. In addition, monitoring of the Quality of Life can be used to assess subjective satisfaction with therapy and to estimate its cost-effectiveness. Quality of Life scales have two basic subtypes: general and illness-specific questionnaires, which have been produced in huge numbers. In view of the fact that quality of life depends on culture, validated versions of these questionnaires have made in many countries. The topic has a fairly broad scope; therefore, in the present review, we offer a brief survey of the QOL-literature published during the last six years on the basis of four important journals which have a high impact factor and deal with general topics (American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and British Journal of Psychiatry). In the first part we introduce the scales that are used most often, while in the second part we present the results of the illness-specific research studies. We hope that our review will be a good map to the labyrinth of this topic and will provide help for selecting the most suitable scale for everyone.