Subjective quality of life and standard of living: a 10-year follow-up of out-patients with schizophrenia.

In 1984, a study in Goteborg, Sweden, reported the quality of life of 61 out-patients with schizophrenia (DSM-III) to be low, despite their high standard of living. The respondents used an instrument (QLS-100) developed by the author to indicate which of 100 items they considered to be unsatisfactory. Interviews captured objective conditions of the patients' lives and their quality-of-life goals for each unsatisfactory item. The results of the study led during the late 1980s to deliberately individualized services, aimed at helping patients to attain their own quality-of-life goals. In total, 40 of the subjects took part in a 10-year follow-up. The 1994 study showed that the incidence of living alone in one's own home increased. Overall quality of life remained unchanged. Although still low, quality of life increased significantly in three of 14 domains, namely contacts, inner experiences, and knowledge and education. The reasons for these improvements and the maintained overall quality of life could be that patients increased their ability to interact with the environment, that they increased and/or modified their aspirations in the light of available resources and/or deficits, and that housekeeping assistance and service were provided conditional on the patients' own quality-of-life goals and needs.

Comparison of quality of life with standard of living in schizophrenic out-patients.

Standard of living reflects the objective dimension of how well the basic needs of life are met, while quality of life is the patient's own subjective view of well-being and satisfaction with her/his life. Sixty-one schizophrenic out-patients completed self-report inventories and participated in interviews about quality of life and standard of living. When living standards were met by a well functioning social service system, patients' perceptions of their quality of life and their standard of living appeared to be independent. Subsequent analyses revealed that 'inner experiences' was one quality-of-life domain frequently reported as unsatisfactory. Moreover, differences in quality of life were found across patients' age, education, and work status.

Use of agarose culture to measure the effect of transforming growth factor beta and epidermal growth factor on rabbit articular chondrocytes.

Nonneoplastic cell lines are unable to grow in soft agar. However, concomitant treatment of these cells with epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor beta confers upon them anchorage independence. Since articular chondrocytes are unique as normal diploid cells that do have the capability of growing in soft agar, we tested whether transforming growth factor beta and epidermal growth factor could affect DNA synthesis and matrix production. In the presence of epidermal growth factor (5 ng/ml) concentrations of high-performance liquid chromatography-purified transforming growth factor beta at concentrations of 0.05-15 ng/ml induced a dose-dependent increase in DNA, to nearly double that of control cultures. A half-maximal effect was seen with transforming growth factor beta, 0.1 ng/ml, and epidermal growth factor, 5 ng/ml. Neither compound alone was mitogenic. In contrast, either transforming growth factor beta or epidermal growth factor alone was able to decrease synthesis of glycosaminoglycans and collagen. The data demonstrate that transforming growth factors can affect the behavior of nonneoplastic cells by modulating cell replication and the biosynthesis of two principal matrix components. In addition they support the hypothesis that these growth factors may play a role in the physiology of nonmalignant cells.