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Psychopathology and Quality of Life Among Mentally Ill Patients in the Community

British and US Samples Compared

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Richard Warner*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Center of Boulder County, Boulder, Colorado, USA, and Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry, University of Colorado
Peter Huxley
Affiliation:
Mental Health Social Work Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Mathematics Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
*
Mental Health Center of Boulder County, 1333 Iris Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80304, USA

Abstract

Sixty-nine mentally ill patients in treatment in an intensive community support system in Boulder, Colorado, were evaluated using the same measures of quality of life and psychopathology as were used in assessing mentally ill patients in hospital and community facilities in Manchester. Psychopathology was greater in the Boulder samples, but quality-of-life scores were no worse for the American patients. The relationship of these findings to systems of care and availability of psychiatric hospital beds is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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