Quality of life and treatment costs in schizophrenic outpatients, treated with depot neuroleptics

Study aim was 1) to find out the influences on quality of life (QoL) of chronic outpatients with schizophrenia; 2) to calculate Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY); and 3) to estimate direct 1-year treatment costs. In a 20% sample (100 males, 100 females) of schizophrenic outpatients from the Outpatients Clinic in Ljubljana, Slovenia receiving depot neuroleptics demographic, clinical, and treatment data were collected for the year 1996. The Krawiecka Scale, Global Assessment Scale (GAS), Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale, Rating Scale for Drug-Induced Akathisia, Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects, Quality of Life Scale (QLS), EQ-5D and QALY were used. Multivariate linear regression was used with the QLS score as dependent variable. The patients were on average 44 years old and had been treated for 14 years. The average GAS score was 70. GAS was positively related to the QLS score while the parkinsonism score was inversely correlated with QLS. The patients can expect to live for 10. 20 more QALY on average. The QoL on the EQ-5D scale was 0.73. The annual direct treatment costs amounted to $216,216 in 1996 prices. In well-adjusted chronic patients with schizophrenia the QoL seems to depend mostly on their psychosocial performance and side effects. Although rare, re-hospitalisations accounted for one-half of all treatment expenses.