Insight and empathy in schizophrenia: Impact on quality of life and symptom severity

Quality of life has emerged as a powerful indicator of therapeutic success. However, little research has been conducted to study potential factors that influence quality of life in persons with schizophrenia, particularly in low-income developing nations.

This study aimed to investigate how insight and empathy impacted the quality of life and severity of symptoms in patients.

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was conducted on 168 patients with schizophrenia using the PANSS Scale, Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale R4, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Birchwood Insight Scale.

Our findings show that the mean score for quality of life was (70.9 ± 9.2), whereas the mean scores for empathy and insight were (60.8 ± 15.8) and (5.8 ± 1.9), respectively. Insight and empathy have predicted effects on QoL (adjusted r square = 0.035, sig = 0.009) and (adjusted r square = 0.012, sig = 0.027), respectively. On the other hand, the regression model also showed a substantial inverse relationship between the severity of the illness and both empathy and insight.

The majority of the clients had poor quality of life, low insight, and low empathy. Insight and empathy play a role in anticipating the patient's perceptions of quality of life. They might affect how severe their illness is. Our findings highlight the importance of developing empathy and insight, and therapies that do so may aid patients with low quality of life.