The Day-to-Day Effect of a Schizophrenia Diagnosis on Patient Quality of Life

There are life-changing aspects to schizophrenia that are amplified when patients are untreated for the condition, explained Megan Ehret, PharmD, MS, BCPP, professor and codirector of the Mental Health Program, University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy.

Ehret discussed schizophrenia management strategies in a session at AMCP Nexus, held October 14-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

How does a schizophrenia diagnosis affect the day-to-day lives of patients both when they are being treated properly and when they are not?

When we think about the treatment of schizophrenia, there are life-changing consequences just to the illness itself. There is a lot more social isolation. There can be stigma and reduced aspects and quality of life. You may be less likely to have a partner, less likely to maybe accomplish college or other aspects of life.

When it goes untreated, those are just amplified. The patient may be hearing voices. They may be paranoid about things around them. Ultimately, each of those things can affect different parts of their lives. They also, additionally, have the potential with schizophrenia to have a reduced life expectancy because of some of the aspects of the illness.

When schizophrenia is appropriately treated, and we use an effective medication, people can go on to have the same quality of life as someone without schizophrenia. They are able to attend college, able to obtain employment, able to have families and function. I think Bethany's story [from the AMCP Nexus session] really highlights how when she found the most effective treatment, she was able to continue on and finish her college degree and complete the quality of life that she was looking for.

It's unfortunate many of our treatments also decrease the life expectancy, because of the adverse effects that can occur from those. So, it's important that when patients are engaged in treatment that they continue to have monitoring so that we can make sure that those things are all adequately monitored and watched for.