Satisfaction with life as a compliance factor of patients with schizophrenia

BACKGROUND. One of the main problems of patients in a psychiatric clinic is non-compliance with the order of treatment, which leads to frequent exacerbations of the disease and social exclusion. According to some reports, about 30–50% of patients completely refuse treatment after hospitalization or take medications in reduced doses. Important among the factors affecting the compliance of patients with schizophrenia are the patient’s personal characteristics, the severity of symptoms, criticism of the disease, substance abuse, side effects of drugs, features of therapeutic cooperation and other factors.

AIM was to analyse the relationship between life satisfaction and compliance in patients with schizophrenia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS. We examined 157 patients diagnosed with Schizophrenia aged 23 to 52 years (38.5±8.1 years). The examination was carried out one week before discharge from the hospital. The main methods of the study were clinical-psychopathological, clinical-dynamic, psychometric (DAI-10 compliance scale, Q-LES-Q-SF test for assessing the degree of satisfaction with life, Beck hopelessness scale, hospital anxiety and depression scale — HADS), and statistical (descriptive statistics, χ² test with Yates correction for contingency tables 2×2, correlation analysis — Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient).

RESULTS. It was found that only 11.4% of males and 20.7% of females were fully compliant. A third of the men and half of the women took medication under the supervision of relatives. Only 12.6% of patients with schizophrenia were satisfied with their lives (without gender differences). A significant proportion of patients (43.3%) experienced a feeling of dissatisfaction with life, and males are 2 times more likely than women. Also, some patients at the time of discharge overestimated their mood, which did not correspond to the subjective assessment. Severe depression, anxiety and a sense of hopelessness increased the patients’ dissatisfaction with all parameters of everyday life. Compliance of patients directly depends on their mood, ability to work, perform everyday household duties and relationships with others, which becomes problematic with anxiety, depression and a sense of hopelessness.

CONCLUSION. Compliance is directly correlated with the quality of life, satisfaction with it, the physical condition of the patient, favourable family relationships, good mood, availability and job satisfaction.