Medication adherence and quality of life in schizophrenia patients with positive and negative symptomps

The aim of this study is to examine quality of life and medication adherence of patients with positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The sample of the study are formed by 80 schizophrenia patients who are half of the patients with positive symptoms in full remission and half of the patients with negative symptoms in full remission. In the study, the positive symptoms in schizophrenia, the negative symptoms in schizophrenia, the quality of life and medication adherence are measured by Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), The World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL- BREF-TR) and Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS), respectively, during clinical observations made to the patients. In addition, a form is used to register socio-demographic conditions of the patients. According to analyses conducted, the patients with positive symptoms have better the quality of life than the patients experiencing negative symptoms (sig(2-tailed) value is 0.016 at 95% confidence level). There is no significant difference between the patients with negative symptoms and the patients with positive symptoms in terms of medication adherence (sig(2-tailed) value is 0.808 at 95% confidence level). Consequently, the course of disease for the schizophrenia patients affects the quality of life as it has no effect on adherence.