Relationship of clinical and demographic characteristics of schizophrenia patients to rehabilitation status

Objectives: To identify the relationship between demographic, clinical and treatment variables and measures of psychiatric rehabilitation status among chronic schizophrenia patients residing in rehabilitation hostels in the community. Method: Demographic and clinical data were collected from a sample of 89 patients. The data included: age, gender, education, origin, immigration status, age of onset of the illness, family history of mental illness, early parental loss status, psychiatric symptoms (measured by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) and compliance with medication. Rehabilitation status was assessed by using 5 measures extracted from the Wisconsin Quality of Life-Provider Questionnaire: occupational activities, social relations and social support, activities of daily living, mean days of readmission and recidivism. Results: Psychiatric symptoms, drug compliance and the age of the patient were the only variables that were correlated with the rehabilitation measures. The symptoms showed a robust relationship with all five measures, drug compliance was highly correlated with the occupational activities, social relations/social support and activities of daily living measures and the age of the patient correlated with the social relations/social supportand activities of daily living measures. Drug compliance was also correlated with the symptoms. Conclusions: The results indicate that older patients, patients with more profound psychiatric symptoms and patients who do not comply with medication manifest a lower rehabilitation status. While these factors may seem self-evident in the clinical environment, they might be overlooked in the community environment and make rehabilitation less efficient.