An Overview of the Quality of Life in Patients With Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of the most common and devastating mental disorders. While control of positive clinical symptoms can be achieved relatively robustly, other clinical signs such as negative symptoms or cognitive problems can be more difficult to treat. This narrative review was undertaken to give an overview of how these and other factors impact a patient's quality of life. Ample evidence shows that clinical symptoms of any kind have a negative impact on quality of life. Numerous factors, however, play an important role in the overall well-being of the patients in such a way that a mere focus on clinical symptom control is not enough to improve quality of life. These factors include psychological traits of the patient, socioeconomic factors such as education and employment status, gender ethnicity, medication side effects, stigma, and psychiatric comorbidities. Maximizing quality of life as the main treatment focus should, therefore, include a comprehensive approach that keeps all these factors and their complicated interplay in mind in order to deliver the best possible treatment.