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Key message: Schizophrenia negatively impacts many different aspects of the lives of both patients and their caregivers (e.g. economic, physical health, social aspects).
Background
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A community survey that included 697 caregivers and 439 patients with schizophrenia identified the top 10 negative impacts of schizophrenia in descending order of frequency, as listed on this slide.
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Patients and caregivers have varying and at times conflicting perspectives and expectations, which need to be reconciled to achieve balance.
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For example, critical issues caregivers ranked as significant in contributing to the disease burden included ‘non-compliance and treatment adherence issues’, ‘lack of motivation and self-care’, and ‘co-morbid substance abuse’.
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Patients perceived different issues to be significant problems, such as ‘access to more effective and better tolerated medications’, ‘commitment to having to take medications indefinitely’ and ‘QOL and better functioning’.
Reference:
Awad AG, Voruganti LN. Pharmacoeconomics. 2008; 26 (2): 149–62.