Life events and schizophrenia. I. Comparison of schizophrenics with a community sample.

In exploring the relationship of life events and psychiatric impairment in a group of 132 posthospitalized schizophrenics living in the community, schizophrenics are contrasted with 132 nonpatient community subjects matched on age, race, sex, and social class. Schizophrenics were significantly more psychiatrically impaired than their nonpatient counterparts and experienced significantly more life events. The overall correlation between life events and psychiatric impairment is weaker in the schizophrenic group than in the control group. However, our findings underscore the association between these variables found in previous studies. In terms of specificity, schizophrenics experienced significantly more events in the interpersonal, health, work, legal, and community crisis areas of activity, and more events categorized as exits from the social field and socially undesirable. On the psychological control dimension, schizophrenics experienced significantly more life events categorized both as "controlled" and "uncontrolled". We discuss the findings in relation to studies exploring the relationship of life events to illness onset and show the implications for the delivery of mental health services to schizophrenics living in the community setting.