Psychological resilience and quality of life amongst people with psychotic illnesses

Abstract

Introduction

Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to adapt to stress and adversity. People with psychotic illness often experience high levels of distress and difficulties adapting.

Aims

To assess the relationship between the resilience of people with psychotic illnesses and their quality of life.

Methodology

Outpatients from multiple settings attending Sligo-Leitrim Mental Health Services, aged 18+ years old with a diagnosis of either schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder or schizoaffective disorder were approached by their treating teams and invited to participate. Other inclusion criteria were having a family member. Drug induced psychoses or no family member were exclusion criteria. The scales used were the Resilience Appraisal Scale and the schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale. This study is part of a larger study looking at family factors and psychosis.

Results

The study sample was 58 enrolled but only 49 participants completed the 2 assessments, of these 33 were males (67.3%). Data was analysed using SPSS 21. Pearson's correlation coefficient for resilience and quality of life was 0.503, P < 0.001. This shows that higher resilience is associated with better quality of life amongst people with psychotic illnesses. These results could have useful clinical implications. If we can intervene to therapeutically increase resilience, we can eventually improve the quality of life of people with psychoses.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.