100 Clinical Neuropsychiatry (2010) 7, 3, © 2010 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l. SUBMITTED JANUARY 2010, ACCEPTED MARCH 2010 BASIC SYMPTOMS IN STABLE SCHIZOPHRENIA: RELATIONS WITH FUNCTIONING AND QUALITY OF LIFE Paola Rocca, Laura Pulvirenti, Cristiana Montemagni, Roberta Rasetti, Giuseppe Rocca, Filippo Bogetto Abstract Objective: Over the past few decades it has been emphasized the importance of social functioning and quality of life as a part of a multidimensional assessment of outcome in the evaluation of the impact of psychosis on patients daily lives. Their relation with schizophrenia symptoms has widely been studied, showing contrasting results. Little is known concerning their relationship with subjective experiences in schizophrenia. Method: One hundred and eighteen consecutive outpatients affected by schizophrenia in stable phase of illness were recruited for the study. Clinical scales were used to assess objective (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale: PANSS, Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia: CDSS) and subjective symptoms (Questionario dei Sintomi- Base: FBF), global functioning and quality of life (Global Assessment of Functioning: GAF, Quality Of Life scale: QLS). Results: After iterative stepwise entries, the combination of three predictor variables (PANSS-positive symptoms subscale, PANSS-negative symptoms subscale, FBF) provided the best-fit GAF model for the data. The combination of two predictor variables (PANSS-negative symptoms subscale, FBF) provided the best-fit QLS- Intrapsychic Foundations subscale model for the data. Conclusions: Our study contributes to underline the necessity to include subjective experiences among the clinical features of schizophrenic patients that must be object of attention. Even if unrelated with objective symptoms assessed by PANSS, they showed a significant correlation with functional outcome and quality of life. Key Words: basic symptoms, schizophrenia, FBF, quality of life, GAF Declaration of interest: none Paola Rocca a , Laura Pulvirenti a , Cristiana Montemagni a , Roberta Rasetti a , Giuseppe Rocca b , Filippo Bogetto a a Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, University of Turin b Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Corresponding author Paola Rocca Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, University of Turin via Cherasco 11, 10126 Turin, Italy. Ph. 0039-011-6634848, fax 0039-011-673473, e-mail: paola.rocca@unito.it Introduction Over the past few decades social functioning has become increasingly used as a part of a multi- dimensional assessment of outcome in the evaluation of the impact of psychosis on patients daily lives (Wegener et al. 2005). Despite the recent widespread use of the term social functioning there is a limited consensus concerning its definition. The boundary between psychosocial functioning and quality of life (QOL) as outcome measures is also contested. Psychosocial functioning represents the capacity of a person to function in different societal roles and their actual social performances, including aspects such as the ability to carry out activities of daily living, the amount or level of work or school functioning, or the type and quality of social support that the patient has. Although no universal definition exists, QOL is usually considered a multidimensional construct that includes subjective well-being and objective mental and physical functioning indicators (Narvaez et al. 2008). World Health Organization defines QOL as the individual perceptions of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they life, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concern. Functional outcome in schizophrenia can be affected by a number of factors like age, gender, education, illness duration, cognitive dysfunctions, symptoms, and pharmacological and psychosocial treatments (Hofer et al. 2005, Wittorf et al. 2008). The factors identified are not always consistent across studies but cognitive dysfunctions and negative symptoms emerged as the most reliable (Bromet et al. 2005, Grant and Beck 2008, Green 1996, Milev et al. 2005). Whereas some studies showed a strong 100-110