Abstract
BackgroundSchizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are ranked among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide. Many people with SSD spend most of their daily time being inactive, and this is related to the severity of negative symptoms. Here, we present the 3-year DiAPAson project aimed at (1) evaluating the daily time use among patients with SSD living in Residential Facilities (RFs) compared to outpatients with SSD and to the general population (Study 1); (2) evaluating the quality of staff-patient relationships, its association with specific patient outcomes and the quality of care provided in RFs (Study 2); and (3) assessing daily activity patterns in residential patients, outpatients with SSD and healthy controls using real-time methodologies (Study 3).MethodsStudy 1 will include 300 patients with SSD living in RFs and 300 outpatients; data obtained in these clinical populations will be compared with normative data obtained by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in the national survey on daily time use. Time use assessments will consist of daily diaries asking participants to retrospectively report time spent in different activities.In Study 2, a series of questionnaires will be administered to 300 residential patients (recruited for Study 1) to evaluate the quality of care and staff-patient relationships, level of well-being and burnout of RFs’ staff, and quality of RFs using a European standardized questionnaire (QuIRC-SA).In Study 3, the daily time use will be evaluated in a subgroup of 50 residential patients, 50 outpatients and 50 healthy controls using the Experience Sampling Method approach (participants will complete a brief questionnaire -about time use, mood and perceived energy- on a smartphone 8 times a day for 1 week) to compare retrospective and real-time reports. Moreover, their level of physical activity, sleep patterns, and energy expenditure will be monitored through a multi-sensor device.DiscussionThis project is highly innovative because it combines different types of assessments (i.e., retrospective and real-time reports; multi-sensor monitoring) to trace an accurate picture of daily time use and levels of physical activity that will help identify the best therapeutic options promoting daily activities and physical exercise in patients with SSD.Trial registrationISRCTN registry ID ISRCTN21141466.
Highlights
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are ranked among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide
Girolamo et al BMC Psychiatry (2020) 20:287 (Continued from previous page). This project is highly innovative because it combines different types of assessments to trace an accurate picture of daily time use and levels of physical activity that will help identify the best therapeutic options promoting daily activities and physical exercise in patients with SSD
This study evaluated in detail the daily time use, showing that (i) 30.8% of the sample spent most of their time alone and uninvolved in any activity; (ii) approximately 1/3 of the patients did “nothing” for more than 6 h/day; and (iii) negative symptoms in patients with SSD were highly prevalent
Summary
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are ranked among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide. We present the DiAPAson study, a 3-year-long project aimed at fostering our knowledge about the daily time use among people with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) using different methodologies. The prominent German philosopher Heidegger identified the very meaning of being in the future (as opposed to the past and the present) and thoroughly reflected on the temporality of human existence [5] It was the French (born in Poland) psychiatrist Eugene Minkowski, relying on his Bergsonian readings, to work on the notion of time in psychiatry: in 1914, he published a monograph entitled “The Essential Elements of TimeQuality”, and in 1933, he produced his fundamental book entitled “Lived Time: Phenomenological and Psychopathological studies”, where he draws a vision of mental disorders based on temporality [6, 7]. Temporality in psychopathology can be considered the primary modality constituting the experience, that is, it gives shape to the experience, as well as to the symptoms of mental disorders
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