Gender Differences in Remission and Recovery of Schizophrenic and Schizoaffective Patients: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

The aim of the paper was to evaluate rates of clinical remission and recovery according to gender in a cohort of chronic outpatients attending a university community mental health center who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder according to DSM-IV-TR. A sample of 100 consecutive outpatients (70 males and 30 females) underwent comprehensive psychiatric evaluation using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnosis of Axis I and II DSM-IV (SCID-I and SCID-II, Version R) and an assessment of psychopathology, social functioning, clinical severity, subjective wellbeing, and quality of life, respectively by means of PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale), PSP (Personal and Social Performance), CGI-SCH (Clinical Global Impression—Schizophrenia scale), SWN-S (Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptics—scale), and WHOQOL (WHO Quality of Life). Rates of clinical remission and recovery according to different criteria were calculated by gender. Higher rates of clinical remission and recovery were generally observed in females than males, a result consistent with literature data. Overall findings from the paper support the hypothesis of a better outcome of the disorders in women, even in the very long term.

Health-related quality of life and metabolic risk in patients with psychosis

“…In line with our study, female gender (Carpiniello et al, 2012) and older age were associated with lower HRQoL (Caron et al, 2005). On the contrary, another study did not find any gender differences in HRQoL (Heider et al, 2007).…”

“…Such associations have been described previously (Caron et al 2005, Carpiniello et al 2012. The function is assessed in two different ways in GAF and HRQoL, which can be viewed as strength.…”

Evaluation of Psychiatric Disability Among Patients With Schizophrenia in Relation to Marital Status: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Considering the quality of life, this study shows males had a significantly better quality of life than females with regard to all the domains: physical, psychological (P=.000); and social (P=.003). This result is in contrast to the results found in the studies by Atkinson et al 35 and Carpiniello et al 36 The results with regard to the difference between genders in the QOL in Schizophrenia have been inconsistent and varying from place to place as reported by Vandiver. 37 No significant difference was found in the domain of environment; the results in the study by Alptekin et al 8 were similar to these.…”

Which Aspects of Long-Term Outcome Are Predicted by Positive and Negative Symptoms in Early-Onset Psychosis? An Exploratory Eight-Year Follow-Up Study

“…A higher percentage of married females compared to males is also observed in adult-onset psychosis [44]; however, in the current study this may also be associated with the young age of our sample and the cultural trend for earlier marriages in females. Interestingly, in our study being married at the follow-up was associated a higher level of general psychopathology at baseline.…”