Quality of life: Benefits of paid work activity. Schizophrenia Bulletin

In a study of work rehabilitation, 97 participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were ran-domized into either a Pay or a No Pay condition to determine the impact of work activity and pay on rehabilitation outcomes. This report specifically inves-tigates the relationship between work rehabilitation and quality of life (QOL) measures for people with schizophrenia. Previous reports have described improvements in symptoms and work outcomes for participants in the Pay condition. Results in this report reveal that randomization to the Pay condition improved ratings on the Heinrichs Quality of Life Scale (QLS). The improvements are found both in overall QLS and in the domain of Intrapsychic Foundations (motivation, sense of purpose, anhedonia, and empathy). For a larger sample (n = 114) we assessed the relationship between amount of participa-tion and QLS improvement. Degree of participation was related to improvement on the QLS total and Intrapsychic Foundations domain. Finally, improve-ment in the Interpersonal Relations scale was associ-ated with weeks of participation for the most consis-tent participants. How participation in work rehabilitation and its interaction with pay improves motivation, interpersonal relatedness, and overall quality of life is discussed