Quality of life for patients with schizophrenia in a Japanese psychiatric hospital

Providing a good quality of life (QOL) has recently been recognized as a central purpose of health care in psychiatry. In this study, we performed a detailed evaluation of the subjective QOL of schizophrenic inpatients and examined the relationship of QOL to various patient characteristics. This study was conducted on schizophrenic inpatients and nursing staff members in a Japanese private psychiatric hospital. As a result, only depression showed a weak, but significant, relationship with subjective QOL. Other characteristics showed no meaningful correlation to subjective QOL. Comparison between the schizophrenic group and the nursing staff group revealed that schizophrenic inpatients showed a lower QOL in the domains of physical health and social relationships. Schizophrenia itself and/or accompanying disabilities might induce lower subjective QOL. It is difficult to determine what the important factors are, except for depression, for subjective QOL of schizophrenic inpatients. However, depression should receive more attention for the QOL in the physical health and psychological health domains.