title: Relative contributions of negative symptoms, insight, and coping strategies to quality of life in stable schizophrenia.
abstract: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relative contributions of negative symptomatology, insight, and coping to quality of life (QOL) in a sample of 92 consecutive outpatients with stable schizophrenia referring to the Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, Struttura Semplice di Coordinamento a Valenza Dipartimentale (SSCVD), Department of Mental Health ASL TO1, Molinette, Italy, in the period between July 2009 and July 2011. In order to assess the specific effect of negative symptoms on QOL and the possible mediating role of insight and coping, two mediation hypotheses were tested, using multiple regression analyses specified by Baron and Kenny (1986). Our findings suggest that (a) higher negative symptoms predict a worse Quality of Life Scale (QLS) intrapsychic foundations (IF) subscale score; (b) attribution of symptoms and coping-social diversion have a direct and positive association with QLS-IF; (c) patients high in negative symptoms are less likely to use attribution of symptoms and coping-social diversion; and (d) attribution of symptoms and coping-social diversion act as partial mediators in the negative symptoms-QOL relationship. The prediction model accounts for 45.3% of the variance of the QLS-IF subscale score in our sample. In conclusion, our results suggest that insight and coping-social diversion substantially contribute to QOL in patients with higher negative symptoms. These factors are potentially modifiable from specific therapeutic interventions, which can produce considerable improvements in the QOL of this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristiana
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montemagni
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Filomena
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Castagna
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crivelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Giampiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Marzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frieri
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macrì
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatric Section, University of Turin, SSCVD, Via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy; Department of Mental Health, ASL TO1, Italy. Electronic address: paola.rocca@unito.it.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rocca
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Attribution of symptoms; Coping social diversion; Negative symptoms; Quality of life; Schizophrenia