The Long-Term Changes in Coping Strategies in Schizophrenia

Abstract

This prospective study aimed to define the long-term changes in coping strategies used by schizophrenia patients and their relation to clinical and psychosocial factors. The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, psychiatric scales, and self-report questionnaires were administered to 148 schizophrenia patients at admission and 16 months thereafter. Based on trends of individual coping patterns to show change over time, four temporal coping types were distinguished: stable favorable and unfavorable, and becoming favorable and unfavorable. We found that coping patterns of 62.2% of patients remained stable over time, became unfavorable among 19.6% of patients, and became favorable among 18.2% of patients. Each temporal coping type is associated with a specific pattern of changes in clinical and psychosocial variables. The findings underscore the clinical relevance of temporal coping types and corroborate the appropriateness of focusing on aspects of coping behavior in treatment and rehabilitation of schizophrenia patients.