Quality of Life in People with Chronic Mental Illness

Abstract

Introduction

An association between chronic mental illness and significantly reduced quality of life in relation to the general population is speculated in the literature internationally.

Objectives

To investigate the quality of life of people with chronic mental illness taking psychotropic medication living in the community and attending the Mental Health Services of Sligo town.

Methods

Review of data including demographics, diagnoses and World Health Organisation Quality of Life Bref scale (WHOQOL-Bref) scores from consecutive patients attending specialist outpatient clinics dedicated to the care of people with chronic mental illness. Raw scores for each WHOQOL-Bref domain were converted to transforme scores in the range 0–100 for ease of comparison with other validated instruments tools.

Results

Total number of patients: 47. Mean age: 56.1 (SD: 13.6), males: 27 (60%). Mean years of illness: 23.1 (SD: 12.2). Primary psychiatric diagnosis: psychotic disorders 26 (57.8%), mood disorders 16 (35.6%), others 3 (6.6%). WHOQOL-BREF Domain transformed scores: physical health mean: 68.1, SD: 19.92, psychological health mean: 68.2, SD: 19.62, social relationships: 66.2, SD: 21.44, environment: 76.8, SD: 19.5.

Conclusions

Quality of life is a complex multidimensional entity and its assessment relies on subjective reporting and analysis as supported by validated instrument tools. Our results suggest that quality of life is reasonably high among this cohort of patients, contrasting much of the current literature in similar populations. The mean score for social relationships was lower than other domains. This may suggest that a lack of socialisation may be associated with chronic mental illness and identifies a clinical focus for improvement of quality of life.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.