Non-interventional Open Label Study to Investigate the Effect of Quetiapine XR on Patient Satisfaction and Quality of Life in Patients With Schizophrenia

Since subjective well-being and quality of life (QoL) are increasingly being recognized as important treatment outcomes in patients with schizophrenia (Hofer et al., 2004; Becker et al., 2005), the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of treatment with quetiapine XR on these parameters in the acute hospital and the subsequent ambulant care setting. The study is planned to be conducted in 15 centers all over Austria and, overall, about 150 inpatients with a ICD-10 diagnosis of acute schizophrenia are planning to be enrolled. The duration of the whole trial will be approximately 4 months, whereas 2 visits during hospitalization and two further visits after discharge will be scheduled. At each visit, adverse events and safety parameters, patient satisfaction and effectiveness of the current treatment, as well as concomitant medication and dosing schedules will be assessed and documented.In addition to that, the patients' overall satisfaction with antipsychotic therapy and their current quality of life will be determined using a QoL questionnaire, focussing on the subjective experience with quetiapine XR.