Coping with stress and quality of life in schizophrenic patients

Explore the patterns of coping among schizophrenic patients employed in the face of general day-to-day stressors and its correlates, study the effect of schizophrenic illness on quality of life, its relation to psychiatric symptoms.

70 patients with chronic stable schizophrenia were enrolled. Data on sociodemographic and clinical variables were recorded. The following scales were utilized: scale for assessment of positive symptoms (SAPS), scale for assessment of negative symptoms (SANS), Brief Cope scale, Self report Quality of life for schizophrenia (SQLS), three subtest short form of WAIS.

On average, each patient used 12 coping strategies. Acceptance and distraction coping strategies were most commonly employed. No correlations were found between different sociodemographic variables, family history of illness, duration of illness or diagnostic subtype and total number of coping strategies used. SAPS score was correlated with acceptance (r=.580, p=.000), less self blame (r=-.305, p=.010), while SANS score was correlated with venting (r=.258, p=.031). Participants with higher IQ estimates reported more active coping (r=.298, p=.012) and religion (r=.235, p=.050). Most scales for Quality of life were impaired. SAPS was correlated only with Psychosocial scale, SANS was correlated with all scales of SQLS, while it showed no correlation with the total number of coping strategies.

Patients with schizophrenia used numerous coping strategies to deal with stress. Lack of correlation with coping strategies suggests that coping efforts are determined by the individual's personality and coping resources, rather than by illness characteristic. Schizophrenic symptoms, especially negative symptoms, had a major impact on SQOL.