Search

Abstract: Stress and coping have been found to be strongly associated with quality of life (QOL). Compared to community controls (CC), individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ) report a lower QOL. Lower QOL in SZ may be explained by patients'' tendency to react differently to stress and to use less effective coping strategies than CC, but no studies to date have examined these possible associations. A main goal of this study, therefore, was to examine the roles of stress response and coping style in explaining QOL in SZ and CC, while controlling for potential confounds including personality. Subjects were 30 SZ patients and 29 matched controls who completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary cortisol was used as an objective measure of stress response. Participants rated their coping strategies with the Brief COPE, judged their QOL with the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and rated their personality using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory. Results indicate that, even when confounds are controlled for, blunted cortisol response predicts better QOL in SZ patients. Additionally, results suggest that more frequent use of coping strategies is associated with better QOL but only in patients with blunted cortisol response; those who showed an increase in cortisol in response to the TSST have better QOL the lower their coping score. Possible explanations and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Some studies have found that the speech of certain schizophrenia patients becomes more disordered in stressful laboratory situations. It is unknown, however, whether affective reactivity of speech is associated with stress responsiveness of symptoms in the real world. This study examines whether language-reactive patients report more stress-related impairments in work functioning than language-nonreactive patients. Forty-six patients provided speech samples and completed a work history interview. It was found that the language-reactive patients were more likely than the language-nonreactive patients to endorse items pertaining to social anxiety and difficulty relating to others as reasons for their work difficulties. This suggests that language-reactive patients are more sensitive to social stressors than language-nonreactive patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]