Prevalence of loneliness and its correlates among patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: There are limited data on loneliness and its correlates in patients with schizophrenia. Objective: To evaluate prevalence and correlates of loneliness in patients with schizophrenia, currently in clinical remission. Methodology: A total of 160 patients of schizophrenia in clinical remission were assessed on UCLA Loneliness Scale, Positive and Negative syndrome scale, Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Brief COPE, Beck’s Hopelessness Scale, Brief Dyadic Scale of Expressed Emotions, and Self-report Quality of Life Measure. Results: The mean age of the study sample was 34.99 ( SD = 9.13) years. The prevalence of loneliness in the study sample was 80%, with mean total UCLA-loneliness scale score of 30.04 (16.9).Compared to participants without loneliness, those with loneliness had had higher CDSS score, had poor quality of life, lower self-esteem, experienced higher level of stigma, more often used maladaptive coping strategies such as self-blaming and reported a higher level of hopelessness. In the correlation analysis, higher level of loneliness was associated higher severity of depression, higher level of stigma (except for stigma resistance) and discrimination, poorer quality of life, lower self-esteem, perception of a higher level of expressed emotions, higher use of maladaptive coping in the domains of behavioral disengagement, and self-blaming, and a higher level of hopelessness. In regression analysis, the maximum variance of loneliness was explained by quality of life score (29%), followed by hopelessness score (8.8%) and discrimination score (2%). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of loneliness in patients with schizophrenia, and there is a need to routinely evaluate the patients of schizophrenia for loneliness and address the same.

Determinants and outcomes of health-promoting lifestyle among people with schizophrenia

“…Our study showed that the loneliness score was high among both of the HPL group. This finding was in line with other studies, which demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia experienced high level of loneliness [1,11]. Our results also showed loneliness had an adverse impact on patients to achieve a high level of HPL.…”

“…In addition, patients who have lower education levels and socioeconomic status are prone to have unhealthy lifestyles [ 10 ]. Notably, patients with schizophrenia often experience high level of stigma and discrimination, exacerbating their social isolation [ 11 ] and thereby impeding the development of healthy habits. Several studies have demonstrated that modifiable factors, including poor nutrition, low physical activity level, and high body mass index (BMI) [ 12 , 13 ] are important determinants of CVDs, besides some static factors, such as genetic vulnerability [ 14 ].…”

Functional recovery in older adults with schizophrenia: A national interRAI study

“…In other studies higher level of loneliness was associated higher severity of depression, poorer quality of life and higher use of maladaptive coping in PwS (Suman et al, 2023). Furthermore, PwS loneliness scores predicted a diagnosis of drug abuse (Trémeau et al, 2016).…”

Correlates of Social Isolation in Forensic Psychiatric Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: An Explorative Analysis Using Machine Learning

“…SSD are known to severely affect social functioning as they cause deficits in numerous domains relevant to social functioning, such as emotion recognition, emotion processing, and theory of mind [9]. It comes as no surprise that there is a high rate of social isolation in populations with SSD, with a recent study reporting rates of 80% [13].…”

“…The social burden of a lack of societal integration does not stay without consequences: for patients suffering from a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), a positive association between social isolation and depressive and negative symptoms as well as impaired social and cognitive functioning has been shown [14][15][16]. Loneliness has also been found to be associated with increased use of maladaptive coping strategies, higher levels of self-blaming, and lower self-esteem in patients with SSD [13]. In fact, there is also subtle evidence of a reciprocal influence of social isolation and schizophreniform symptomatology: findings from murine animal models strongly support the hypothesis that social isolation leads, in fact, to deficits associated with SSD, such as anxiety and cognitive impairments [17,18].…”