Correlates of subjective well-being in schizophrenic patients treated with atypical antipsychotics

Objective A growing body of research indicates that a low subjective well-being (SW) may be predictive of non-adherence and less favourable outcome. This study examined baseline variables and variables in the course of treatment hypothesised to be associated with later SW. Methods Sixty-three inpatients with schizophreniform disorder or schizophrenia were randomly assigned to treatment with various atypical antipsychotics after a wash-out phase of 2 days. Subjects were evaluated with a protocol that examined psychopathology (Positive and Negative Symptom Scale, PANSS), side effects (Scandinavian Society of Pharmacology, UKU), and subjective well-being (Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptic treatment, SWN) at baseline and endpoint (mean duration of treatment 39.9 days). Two-thirds of subjects were multiple episode schizophrenic inpatients pre-treated with antipsychotics. Results Multiple regression analyses revealed that the PANSS negative score, neurological side effects, and SWN at baseline, as well as change of the PANSS positive score between baseline and endpoint, were associated independently with SW at endpoint (R(2)=0.55 after exclusion of two subjects). Conclusions Patients with low SW, severe negative symptoms, and neurological side effects, all at baseline, as well as those without improvement or deterioration of positive symptoms are at risk of low SW later in treatment and, most likely, of non-adherence.