Social functioning and quality of life in chronically mentally ill patients

The objective of this study was to evaluate quality of life of chronically ill patients. We interviewed 64 severely chronically ill patients and 84 chronically ill patients regarding their satisfaction with their social skills and their quality of life in general, their life satisfaction with health, well-being, spore lime activities, and social relations. This sample is a subsample of data of a prospective study that included 425 psychiatric outpatients and inpatients. The results show that severely ill patients report more deficits than slightly chronically ill patients. Dissatisfaction with quality of life correlates with deficits in social functioning in both groups of patients. Compared with chronically ill patients, severely chronically ill patients report a lower quality of life in their spore time activities and social relations. Severely ill schizophrenic patients hove a higher quality of life than severely ill patients of other diagnostic groups.