Assessment of contributions to disability in people with schizophrenia during rehabilitation

The aim of this study was to assess a number of the components of disability in patients diagnosed with DSM-IIIR residual schizophrenia. Forty-one patients undergoing hospital and community rehabilitation programs were tested. A range of disability levels was defined with a measure of global assessment of function. A large proportion of the patients also had poor results on frontal lobe testing, persistent positive symptoms, and high levels of emotional distress. There was a trend for higher levels of positive symptoms to be associated with increases in global levels of disability, frontal lobe impairment and emotional distress. The work suggests that rehabilitation programs could be more focused if patients were assessed not only for their overall level of functional disability but also for the level of treatment resistant positive symptoms, frontal lobe impairment and the amount and type of emotional distress and insight.