ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting recurrence in patients with schizophrenia received more than 10 years of long-term treatment. METHODS: The medical records of long-term follow-up patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia from department of psychiatry, Inha university hospital for more than 10 years were reviewed. The recurrence was defined as the re-emergence or aggravation of psychotic symptoms after maintenance treatment during 6 months. RESULTS: Of the 110 patients who were included in the study, 78 patients were recurred. Half of the patients were experiencing at least 1 recurrence within six years. After adjustment of sociodemographic variables, female, poor drug compliance, younger baseline age, shorter duration of illness and longer duration of hospitalization at first admission were significantly related to an increased likelihood of recurrence. The most common stressor of recurrence was irregular drug taking (61.73%). CONCLUSION: The results show the importance of gender, drug compliance, baseline age, duration of illness, and duration of hospitalization at first admission in predicting recurrence of long-term follow-up patients with schizophrenia.