Last update:
16-Sep-2004

In the last two decades, there has been an increased interest in the field of quality of life (QοL) in medicine in general and more recently in relation to mental disorders. The term quality of life refers to a loosely related body of work on psychological well-being, social and emotional functioning, health status, functional performance, life satisfaction, social support and standard of living for which normative, objective and subjective indicators of physical, mental, social and emotional functioning are all used. Although definitions vary, the "quality of life" concept encompasses three overarching dimensions: (a) what a person is capable of doing (functional status), (b) access to resources and opportunities to use these abilities to pursue interests, and (c) the sense of well-being. The first two dimensions are often referred to as objective QoL and the latter as subjective QoL. Within these dimensions, certain life domains have been identified, such as health, family, social relations, work, financial status and living situation, giving to the QoL concept a complex notion. Current research interest has focused on the QoL of people with chronic mental illnesses and primarily schizophrenia, mainly because of the social and economic impacts which these disabling conditions have on patients, their families and the community. Most of the studies showed that patients with severe chronic mental illness have an impoverished QoL. In the case of depression it seems that depression and reduced QoL are tautological concepts. In the case of anxiety disorders there is growing evidence of substantial impairment in the subjective quality of life, objective functioning and environmental circumstances in this population. The nature of the impairment in QoL, however, shows some variation depending on the particular disorder. Over the past decade, several measures have been developed to assess the QoL of persons with mental illness, in particular severe and persistent psychoses but more recently also those with depression and anxiety disorders. QoL assessments can prove useful in assessing needs, developing intervention strategies and evaluating outcomes of interventions at both the system and individual patient levels.

Key words: Αssessment, Mental health, Quality of life.