Effects of antipsychotic medications on quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with early-stage schizophrenia: 1-year follow-up naturalistic study

Abstract

Background: The relative effects of the atypical antipsychotic drugs and conventional agent on quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with early-stage schizophrenia is still uncertain because of an insufficient number of studies examining this issue.

Methods: In a 12 months open-label, prospective observational, multicenter study, 1029 subjects with schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder within 5 years of onset were monotherapy with chlorpromazine, sulpiride, clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine or aripiprazole. The health-related quality of life and psychosocial functioning were assessed using Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) and the Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADL), respectively.

Results: At 12 months, treatment resulted in significant improvements in all 8 domain scores of SF-36, GAS and ADL score (all P-values< .001). However, only olanzapine and quetiapine groups demonstrated greater improvement in the role-psychical score of SF-36 and GAS score than did the chlorpromazine group (all P-values ≤ .002).

Conclusions: All antipsychotics may improve quality of life and social function in patients with early-stage schizophrenia, but further studies are needed to determine whether atypical antipsychotics are superior to conventional agents.