Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 4, 2026
Modeling Age-Associated Neurodegenerative Diseases in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: August 15, 2020
Functioning in community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in rural Greece
Vaios Peritogiannis1, Panagiota Nikolaou2
1Mobile Mental Health Unit of the Prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia, Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in Epirus, Ioannina, Greece.
Background:
There is a dearth of studies on functioning in patients with psychotic disorders in rural areas.
Aim:
The objective of this study was to assess functioning in a population-based sample of patients with psychotic disorders who live in rural, remote and deprived areas in Greece, and to explore the differences in functioning across ages.
Methods:
The sample consisted of 61 patients with psychotic disorders that were engaged to treatment with a community mental health service. The mean age of patients was 54.2 years, and the mean illness duration was 26.5 years.
Results:
A total of 23 patients (37.7%) had score in the Global Assessment of Functioning scale >60, and were rated as adequately functioning, and 18 patients (29.5%) had score in Clinical Global Impression scale-Schizophrenia ⩽3 and could be rated as mildly or minimally ill. Functioning was found to be inversely related to the patients' symptomatology. No correlation with age was found.
Conclusion:
This study suggests that a large proportion of patients with psychotic disorders in rural Greece may achieve a satisfactory level of functioning in the long-term, across the whole age range despite the not completely remitted symptomatology. More research is needed to clarify the factors associated with rural residency that may account for patients' functioning.
