Prediction of quality of life in schizophrenia using machine learning models on data from Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) schizophrenia trial

Abstract

While research focus remains mainly on psychotic symptoms, it is questionable whether we are placing enough emphasis on improving the quality of life (QoL) of schizophrenia patients. To date, the predictive power of QoL remained limited. Therefore, this study aimed to accurately predict the QoL within schizophrenia using supervised learning methods. The authors report findings from participants of a large randomized, double-blind clinical trial for schizophrenia treatment. Potential predictors of QoL included all available and non-redundant variables from the dataset. By optimizing parameters, three linear LASSO regressions were calculated (N = 697, 692, and 786), including 44, 47, and 41 variables, with adjusted R-squares ranging from 0.31 to 0.36. Best predictors included social and emotion-related symptoms, neurocognition (processing speed), education, female gender, treatment attitudes, and mental, emotional, and physical health. These results demonstrate that machine learning is an excellent predictive tool to process clinical data. It appears that the patient’s perception of their treatment has an important impact on patients’ QoL and that interventions should consider this aspect.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00014001.

Effectiveness of family interventions for patients with schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Previous but recent meta‐analyses (Camacho‐Gomez & Castellvi, 2020; Rodolico et al, 2022) have commonly reported the positive effect of FISs on relapse prevention. Considering that medication adherence is linked to relapse prevention and improved QoL in patients (Beaudoin et al, 2022; Higashi et al, 2013), existing FISs may enhance treatment satisfaction and adherence by strengthening the capabilities of family members, thereby playing a role in preventing patient relapse. However, this mechanism needs to be confirmed through future research.…”

Changes in Quality of Life in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia Patients Undergoing Avatar Therapy: A Content Analysis

“…When asked about ATp specifically, all participants mentioned that they appreciated the intervention. Satisfaction with treatment has been shown to be associated with a better QoL in individuals with psychosis [ 18 , 58 , 59 ]; therefore, this might be an important component to consider. However, a few participants described some difficulties they encountered—notably, it could be difficult to role play a dialogue with a character.…”

“…QoL is defined by the World Health Organization as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” [ 15 ]. In health science, an increasing amount of importance is given to this concept as it might better represent the recovery processes than solely relying on symptoms [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Indeed, improvements in psychiatric symptomatology do not always translate to actual change in an individual’s life, or in their perception of how they experience life [ 19 ].…”

Recovering quality of life in outpatients with psychosis spectrum disorders and its association with the symptom domains

“…Finally, we have not evaluated the possible effects of pharmacotherapy on symptoms or QoL, nor the patients' perception of their treatment. Our recommendation is that future studies also focus on these clinically highly relevant topics, as suggested by the recent study which used machine learning methods to explore QoL in schizophrenia (26).…”