Quality of life in Schizophrenia patients with and without adequate pharmaceutical care: A randomized controlled study

Abstract

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a complicated mental illness manifesting in a variety of disturbing clinical presentations in an individual, resulting in varying treatment results and poor Quality of Life (QoL). This study was aimed at assessment and comparison of QoL in patients with and without provision of pharmaceutical care and evaluation of the drug utilisation pattern among the patients. Materials and methods: A randomized controlled study was conducted among 104 patients fulfilling the eligibility criteria, randomly assigned to control and interventional group, with 52 patients in each group. At baseline and follow up, QoL scores were compared using the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire for each group. Patient counselling was provided to the intervention group. Results: Schizophrenia was prevalent in females (56.2%) and 34.4% were below 30 years. Factors such as marital, employment, education, socio-economic status were influenced. Post-follow up WHOQOL-BREF scores among the intervention group were found to be significant as compared to that of the control group. Conclusion: There is improvement in the domain wise mean and total QoL scores in Schizophrenia patients in the interventional group as compared to that of the control group at the follow up.

Keywords

• Schizophrenia
• Psychotropic drugs
• Prescribing indicators
• Quality of life