Patients with schizophrenia experience lower quality of life (QOL) than the general population. Improving QOL is both challenging and desirable.

To broaden the understanding of QOL in patients with schizophrenia to facilitate development of treatment strategies.

To assess QOL in patients with schizophrenia and to examine the relation of QOL with a) illness duration b) antipsychotic treatment (defined daily doses, ddd), c) body mass index (BMI) and d) smoking.

In this naturalistic, cross-sectional study patients were interviewed to obtain smoking habits, they completed a QOL questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref, composed of a physical, psychological, social and environmental domain) and had height and weight measured. Patients were grouped as first-ever diagnosed or long-term ill. Characteristics were correlated to QOL using multiple regression analysis.

82 participated. Mean QOL was comparable to prior studies. A number of characteristics were significantly associated with the four QOL domains. The regression coefficients and significance levels are presented in Table I.

Patients with schizophrenia experienced a low QOL. The following characteristics were significantly associated with lower QOL in a) first-ever diagnosed: high BMI, low ddd and smoking habits and b) long-term ill: high BMI and short illness duration. Changing these might improve QOL in patients with schizophrenia.