[Results of quality of life research in chronic psychiatric patients].

This article resumes the most important results of quality of life research on chronic mentally ill patients and argues for the importance of this perspective of evaluation-research. Chronic mentally ill persons experience less quality of life than the general population. Rehabilitation-programs improve the quality of life of chronic mentally ill patients. There is a covariation between better quality of life and length of the interval without being recidivous. Patients of community based programs report a better quality of life than long-term psychiatric inpatients. Finally some open questions and problems concerning quality of life research on the chronically mentally ill are discussed.