Life events preceding relapse of schizophrenia

In this study, retrospective assessment of life events over a period of one year was carried out in two groups of schizophrenic patients. Each group had 30 patients. One group comprised "relapsing" schizophrenics and the other consisted of "stable" patients. The group of "relapsing" schizophrenics had experienced a significantly greater number of life events and also had a significantly higher stress score than the "stable" group. However, analysis of the distribution of life events over the study period of one year showed no increase in the frequency of occurrence of life events in the three months prior to relapse. Similarly, no such significant increase in the stress score was seen in the same period of time in the group which had relapsed. Treatment compliance and stress scores accounted for nearly 40% of the variance of the data in the "relapsing" group. Implications of the findings are highlighted.