Comorbidity of Schizophrenia and Social Phobia – Impact on Quality of Life, Hope, and Personality Traits: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the study was to explore whether the comorbidity of social phobia affects symptoms severity, positive and negative symptoms, self-stigma, hope, and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which all participants completed the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale, Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q), Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R), and the demographic questionnaire. The disorder severity was assessed both by a psychiatrist (Clinical Global Impression Severity-the objective version [objCGI-S] scale) and by the patients (Clinical Global Impression Severity-the subjective version [subjCGI-S] scale). The patients were in a stabilized state that did not require changes in the treatment. Diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder was determined according to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) research criteria. A structured interview by Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to confirm the diagnosis. Results: The study included 61 patients of both genders. Clinically, the patients with comorbid social phobia had the earlier onset of the illness, more severe current psychopathology, more intense anxiety (general and social), and higher severity of depressive symptoms. The patients with comorbid social phobia showed the significantly lower quality of life compared to the patients without this comorbidity. The patients with comorbid social phobia also had a statistically lower mean level of hope and experienced a higher rate of the self-stigma. They also exhibited higher average scores of personality trait harm avoidance (HA) and a lower score of personality trait self-directedness (SD). Conclusion: The study demonstrated differences in demographic factors, the severity of the disorder, self-stigma, hope, HA, and SD between patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders with and without comorbid social phobia.

The Prevalence and Correlates of Social Anxiety Symptoms among People with Schizophrenia in Ethiopia: An Institution-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…The prevalence of social anxiety symptoms among individ-uals with schizophrenia was found to be 36.2%. This result is consistent with those of other studies carried out in Israel 38% [13], Czech Republic 31.1% [35], Italy 36.3% [17], Canada 32% [36], and India 31.03% [37].…”

“…The severity of psychotic episode in acute phase of schizophrenia predicted the severity of concurrent depression/anxiety symptoms [46]. The severity of schizophrenia symptoms increased the symptoms of social phobia symptoms [22], and patients diagnosed with comorbid schizophrenia and social anxiety symptoms had significantly higher scores on the mean PANSS [21]. Poor social support was five times a greater risk for social anxiety symptoms than good social support.…”

“…Several factors appear to influence the risk of social anxiety among individuals with schizophrenia. These include duration of illness, multiple episodes, low quality of life, impaired function, relapse, suicide attempts, number of hospitalizations, severity of the symptoms, and disability [20][21][22][23][24]. Evidence suggests that social anxiety contributes to a serious decrease in treatment outcomes and functional impairments [11,25].…”

Social Anxiety and Quality of Life: Mediating Role of Stigma Perception in Individuals Who Stutter

“…A study found that youth with higher levels of social anxiety reported lower QoL (Hoff et al, 2017;Holly et al, 2015). QoL has been found to be related with other social/psychological processes, one of which is self-stigma (Vrbova et al, 2017).…”

Big Five Personality Traits and Predicting Mental Health among Iranian Older Adults

“…Hope is related to life goals and expectations of achieving positive outcomes as a result of one’s efforts. The basic level of hope remains relatively stable over time, which makes it comparable to a personality trait (Vrbova et al, 2017). Aging is associated with some psychological and physical changes that go beyond the question of time and life; Issues such as children leaving home, the death of a spouse, disability, especially retirement, and limited social relationships are some of these changes that can reduce life expectancy in older adults (Sadri Damirchi et al, 2017).…”