Quality of life (QOL) of patients with schizophrenia and epilepsy attending an outpatient clinic in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka

Background: Schizophrenia and epilepsy are chronic relapsing disorders, that share common disadvantages that affects QOL.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 68 patients with schizophrenia and 68 patients with epilepsy, presenting to psychiatry and neurology clinics of the Colombo South Teaching Hospital (CSTH). The validated Sinhala and Tamil version of the WHO QOL 100 was used to assess the QOL.
Results: Schizophrenia group had poorer QOL in physical (p<0.05), social (p<0.01), independence (p<0.05) and environmental (p<0.05) domains, compared to epilepsy. Longer duration of illness (> 5 years) was associated with poorer QOL in the independence (p<0.05) and social domains (p<0.05) and longer duration of untreated illness was associated with lower QOL in the physical (p<0.01) and social domains (p<0.01) in schizophrenia group.
Conclusions: Patients with schizophrenia had poorer QOL compared to patients with epilepsy. Longer duration of untreated illness was associated with poorer QOL in both groups.