RESUMEN
More than fifty one and half millionpeople globally and nationally suffer from schizophrenia. Relapse rates vary from 50% to 92% globally. Factors that associated with relapse are drug non adherence, substance abuse, co-morbid illness and stressful life events. Aims to assess prevalence and associated factors of schizophrenia relapse among patients at Amanuel Mental Specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Institution based cross sectional study conducted at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital from April one to thirty 2011. Data were collected by using pretested semi structured questionnaire in form of interview technique to collect data from 422 patients. The collected data were exposed to statistical treatments.Among participants 43.3% of them had relapse of schizophrenia. Factors with associated to schizophrenia relapse were depression, 1.95 [AOR (95% C.I, 1.95(1.17, 3.25)], suicidal ideation [AOR (95% C.I, 9.12(4.59, 17.92)] and drug non-adherence have a significance association with relapse of schizophrenia [AOR (95% C.I, 2.80(1.58, 4.96)]. The prevalence of relapse of schizophrenia is a common and major problem in Ethiopia and factors that are associated with relapse are depression, drug non adherence and suicidal ideation. It is better to launch community based bio psychosocial approaches.