A comparative study of quality of life and disability among schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder patients in remission

BACKGROUND: Persons with long-term psychiatric disorders have greater deficits in living skills as well as greater problems in employment and relationship to their social environment. Thus, chronic psychiatric illnesses have psychosocial consequences such as disability and impaired quality of life (QOL) due to their symptomatology and chronic course. OBJECTIVES: Assessment and comparison of disability and QOL of patients suffering from schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in remission phase. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study carried out in the psychiatry outpatient Department of Mental Health Institute, S.C.B. Medical College and Neuropsychiatric Consultation Centre, Cuttack. The study sample consisted of fifty cases of each groups (schizophrenia and OCD), which included both males and females. All of them were assessed through the World Health Organization-QOL BREF and Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale. RESULTS: Results revealed that schizophrenics have poor QOL and greater disability burden than patients of OCD. CONCLUSION: These psychiatric illnesses, i.e. schizophrenia and OCD, affect all areas of daily functioning leading to greater disability, and thus increasing the burden on the family, imposing greater challenges for the rehabilitation of these patients and their inclusion in the mainstream of the family and society.