Abstracts

Schizophrenia is a chronic neuropsychiatric disease with periodic relapses that greatly impair the long-term recovery and burden the patients, caregivers, and the healthcare systems. This paper evaluated the risk and degree of relapse, and other related socio-demographic predictors in patients with schizophrenia who visited the University College Hospital, Ibadan. There was a descriptive cross-sectional design in which 295 respondents were chosen through simple random sampling. A structured questionnaire, the Relapse Risk Assessment of Schizophrenia Patients (RASP), and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed with SPSS version 28, and the descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were performed at the level of significance of 5%. Results indicated that most of the respondents were at high risk of relapse and quite a good proportion of the respondents had marked severity of symptoms. Past hospitalization was also strongly correlated with risk of relapse and length of illness was a strong determinant of the severity of relapse. The majority of socio-demographic factors were not significantly related to the outcomes of relapse. The study concluded that relapse is a significant clinical issue in the management of schizophrenia, which is mainly precipitated by illness-related factors. Specific interventions such as those targeting high-risk groups, early diagnosis, and long-term and integrated care are crucial to minimize relapse and enhance patient outcomes.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Relapse risk, Symptom severity, Hospitalization, Mental health,

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