A New Goal of Treatment for Schizophrenia: Quality of Life

Lee, Kyoung Uk; Bahk, Won Myong

Abstract

Improvement of psychopharmacology resulted in changes in therapeutic target for patients with schizophrenia. Although the control of psychotic symptoms are considered to be the primary goal of treatment in schizophrenia, in recent years, functional recovery and improvement of quality of life (QoL) has been highlighted as the new therapeutic target. In this article, we reviewed the definition, assessment tools, and recent studies which have been done in Korea. QoL is complex and heterogenous concept, thus there have been no gold-standard measures for QoL. Standardization of assessment tools for Koreans has set the infrastructure for QoL researches in patients with schizophrenia. More researches are needed in this area, and it could provide information for the development of psychosocial program and systemic support for improving schizophrenic patient's QoL.