Chronic Schizophrenic Patients in the Community

Abstract

SummaryA sample of 190 patients, diagnosed as schizophrenic by the same psychiatrist, have been surveyed in an urban community and their clinical and social status assessed. Compared to the local population as a whole, a significantly greater proportion of the men had never married, and although the women had married at approximately the same rate as those in the general population, 25 per cent of them had been divorced by the time of the interview. Assessments of the subjects' clinical condition by the Present State Examination were analysed into four groups of syndromes. Only 27 patients showed schizophrenic or paranoid symptoms, whereas neurotic symptoms were not only prevalent but seemed to cause most of the reported personal problems. Twenty-eight patients were free of symptoms at the time of interview. The great majority of the sample (72 per cent) were being maintained on long-acting neuroleptics. These data will form the baseline to assess a monitoring system, designed to keep the local psychiatric services in touch with schizophrenic patients who might otherwise drop out of treatment.

An evaluation of services for women with long‐term mental health problems

“…The sociodemographic and psychiatric characteristics of the clients were very similar to those described in previous studies of services for people with long-term mental health problems (see Cheadle et al 1978, Beels et al 1984, Mulkern & Manderscheid 1989, Wells et al 1989, Ford et al 1993. The majority of the clients were male (66%), single (94%), unemployed (98%), and living alone (80%).…”

Prevalence of Comorbid Anxiety Disorders in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Literature Review

“…On the other hand, other investigators have found that: neurotic and not psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia were associated with social handicaps [31]; patients with anxi-( ety/depressive symptoms were receiving higher doses of neuroleptics and had more extrapyramidal side-effects (EPSE) [35]; first episode patients with anxiety comorbidity had longer hospitalisations, were younger and less likely to be married [36]; patients with comorbid anxiety disorders had more severe illness in the previous month and a higher proportion lived alone [40]; and patients with comorbid GAD had a higher number of admissions compared with other anxiety comorbidities [40].…”

Relaxation Training in Psychiatric Admission Units

“…It is frequently forgotten that most psychiatric patients are subject to heightened anxiety. For example, it is now clear that one of the most disabling features of schizophrenia is not the presence of psychotic symptoms per se, but instead the persistence of chronic neurotic symptoms that result in social isolation (Cheadle, Freeman and Korer 1978). Some of the potential benefits of relaxation training are listed in table 2.…”