Stress Coping Strategies and Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia

Mijeong Lim; Minyoung Sim; Sungun Chae; Won Hye Lee; Joonho Na; Daeho Kim

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2015.54.2.181

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Lim, Sim, Chae, Lee, Na, and Kim: Stress Coping Strategies and Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2015; 54(2): 181-187.

Published online: 31 May 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2015.54.2.181

Stress Coping Strategies and Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia

Mijeong Lim, MD¹, Minyoung Sim, MD, PhD², Sungun Chae, MD¹, Won Hye Lee, PhD³, Joonho Na, MD⁴, Daeho Kim, MD, PhD⁵

¹Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

²Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Seoul National Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

³Department of Psychology, Seoul National Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

⁴Department of Emergency Medicine, Asan Chungmu Hospital, Asan, Korea.

⁵Department of Psychiatry, Hanyang University Medical School, Seoul, Korea.

Address for correspondence: Minyoung Sim, MD, PhD. Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Seoul National Hospital, 398 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-711, Korea. Tel +82-2-2204-0327, Fax +82-2-2204-0394, mdsim@hanmail.net

Received 15 January 2015 Revised 29 January 2015 Accepted 12 March 2015

Abstract

Objectives

The aims of this study were to investigate the pattern of stress coping strategies and the effects of stress coping strategies on quality of life in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods

Stress coping strategies and quality of life were examined using Ways of Coping Checklist and Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale for 98 patients with schizophrenia. Stress coping strategies were composed of problem-focused coping, social support seeking, emotion-focused coping, and wishful thinking. Among these, problem-focused coping and social support seeking were active coping strategies while emotion-focused coping and wishful thinking were passive coping strategies. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) were also administered.

Results

Active coping scores were higher than passive coping scores in patients with schizophrenia. Quality of life was higher in the active coping group compared to the passive coping group. Active coping usage was a significant predictor of higher quality of life even after controlling for gender, age, PANSS, and BDI scores.

Conclusion

Patients with schizophrenia used more active coping strategies than passive coping strategies, which showed significant association with higher quality of life. A treatment program to provide education on use of active coping strategies in a proper and flexible way might contribute to enhanced quality of life in patients with schizophrenia.

Keywords: Psychological stress, Coping skills, Quality of life, Schizophrenia

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Comparison of stress coping strategies in patients with schizophrenia. Scores of problem-focused coping and wishful thinking were significantly higher than scores of social support seeking and emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping scores showed significantly lower than other stress coping strategies in patients with schizophrenia (A). Active coping scores (problem-focused coping+social support seeking) were higher than passive coping scores (emotion-focused coping+wishful thinking) (B).

Fig. 2

Comparison of psychopathology and quality of life between active and passive coping group. Active coping group had significantly higher quality of life than passive coping group (D). There were no significant differences in psychotic symptom and depressive symptom severity between active and passive coping groups (A-C).

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with schizophrenia (n=98)

^* : p<0.05. BDI : Beck's Depression Inventory, CGI-S : Clinical Global Impression-Severity, PANSS : Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, SQLS-R4K : Korean version of 4th revision of Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale, SD : Standard deviation

Table 2

Correlations between stress coping strategies, psychopathology, and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia

^* : Uncorrected p<0.05, ^† : Uncorrected p<0.01. BDI : Beck's Depression Inventory, PANSS : Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, SQLS-R4K : Korean version of 4th revision of Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale

Table 3

Generalized linear model for quality of life in patients with schizophrenia

R squared=0.35, adjusted R squared=0.29, p<0.001. ^* : p<0.05. BDI : Beck's Depression Inventory

Notes

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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