Quality of life, social support, and severity of psychiatric symptoms in Jordanian patients with schizophrenia

Accessible summary The domain of social relationship was the highest domain of quality of life for patients with schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia received their highest social support from significant others and friends. Anxiety, guilt feeling, tension and depression were the most severe symptoms of schizophrenia among patients. The major purposes of this study were to examine levels and correlations of quality of life (QOL), social support, and severity of psychiatric symptoms as well as to identify the variables that best predict QOL among Jordanian patients with schizophrenia. Descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 160 patients selected through systematic random sampling from two psychiatric outpatient clinics. Results showed that the highest domain of QOL was the social relationship domain, and the highest source of social support was perceived from significant others. Severity of affective symptoms was the highest, and severity of positive symptoms was the lowest. QOL correlated positively with social support, patients' educational and income level, and employment; and negatively with severity of psychiatric symptoms, duration of untreated illness, and duration of treatment. Support from friends, duration of untreated illness, income level, and severity of affective symptoms predicted QOL and accounting for 47.3% of the variance.