Does quality of life of schizophrenia different from other mental disorder? Quality of life : A study in Outpatient Psychiatric Disorders at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society

Abstract

Background : Quality of life (QOL) can be used to assess the treatment outcomes. No ranking of quality of life of Thai outpatients based on psychiatric diagnosis was studied before.

Objective : To study the quality of life of psychiatric outpatients of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and ranking of quality of life by diagnosis.

Setting : Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society of Thailand

Research design : Descriptive study.

Material and Method : In this research, the quality of life of 113 psychiatric outpatient of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the Red Cross Society of Thailand was studied with WHOQOL-BREF-THAI. The study analyzes means, variances and the differences of averages whether they significantly differ or not.

Result : One hundred and thirteen outpatients, 44 males and 69 females were recruited. Their average age was 47.14 ± 12.47 years old. The common diagnoses were schizophrenia, depression and generalized anxiety disorder. The average quality of life scores of all patients were 97.54 ± 10.00. Panic disorder had the highest average score at 102 ± 12.61. Obsessive compulsive disorder had mean scale at 93.00 ± 8.27 which is the lowest quality of life of other diagnostic. The QOL score of 43 schizophrenia were 97.30 ± 10.34, compared to the 70 non-schizophrenia, whose, QOL score were 98.28 ± 9.64. Scores in both groups had no significant statistical difference.

Conclusion : The outcome of interpretation of QOL scores showed that the overall quality of life of the patients was in the better level. The quality of life in diagnoses sort by order was panic disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. The quality of life of the schizophrenic did not differ from that of the nonschizophrenia. This study may demonstrate the treatment outcomes that affect the improvement of the quality of life, even if it is a serious disease.