Quality of Life and Sexuality in Men with Schizophrenia: A Naturalistic Study

ObjectiveSchizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that caus-es impairments in subjective well-being and func-tional outcomes. Naturalistic studies are important interms of the applicability of the results to treatmentprograms. We aimed to investigate the factors affect-ing the quality of life in individuals with schizophreniathrough naturalistic studies.Material and Method Data were collected through structured interviews andself-administered metrics with 49 male patients diag-nosed with schizophrenia who met the eligibility crite-ria. After providing informed consent, they completedthe Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX) andthe short version of the World Health OrganizationQuality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF).ResultsWe found that high economic status and the ASEX pe-nile erection, ability to reach orgasm, and satisfactionwith the orgasm subscales predicted quality of life.We grouped participants according to their answers tothe questions "Do you think you have sexual dysfunc-tion (SD) due to illness?" and "Do you think you haveSD due to medication?" and compared them in termsof sexual function and quality of life. Although no sig-nificant differences were found in ASEX scale scoresbetween the two groups, we found that participantsin the group who thought they had SD experienced agreater deterioration in their WHOQOL-BREF scalescores.ConclusionSexuality is an important component influencing thelife satisfaction of individuals with schizophrenia.However, restrictions on the sexual lives of patientscan negatively impact their overall quality of life.Therefore, the sexual lives of patients with schizo-phrenia should always be assessed during routineexaminations.