Impact of depressive symptoms on quality of life in a group of schizophrenic patients

Abstract

Schizophrenia is often framed as a severe and debilitating chronic illness, characterized by amplitude of signs and symptoms which may be positive as delusions, hallucinations, negative as a motivation, or blunted affect and/or cognitive symptoms. In general, patients with schizophrenia have poor quality of life in comparison to the general population, this is worsened with the long course of the illness, poor education, and the presence of negative and/ or depressive symptoms. In the United States, the lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1%. The Epidemiologic Catchment Area study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health has reported a lifetime prevalence of 0.6 to 1.9 percent. Despite the illness severity, only about 1/2 of those patients obtain treatment. Reports from epidemiological studies in Egypt and Middle East showed lower prevalence rates, as psychotic disorders in Egypt represent only 0.19% in a study done in 2009, which is lower than that in Dubai (0.7%). Psychiatric comorbidities are common among patients with schizophrenia. Substance abuse comorbidity predominates. It is estimated that comorbid depression found in 50% of patients, and almost 47% of patients also have a lifetime diagnosis of comorbid substance abuse.