Assessment of coping with stress in patients with Schizophrenia in a Community Mental Health Centre, in Turkey.

Objective: To assess schizophrenia patients' approach toward coping with stress in terms of demographic variables.

Methods: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at the State Hospital Community Mental Health Centre, Turkey, from November 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014 and comprised patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Data was collected using Sociodemographic Information Form and the Coping Assessment Questionnaire Inventory. It was analysed using SPSS 18.

Results: Of the 53 patients, 14(26.4%) were females and 39(73.5%) were males. The overall mean age was 38±10.66 years. Highest mean score was recorded for the emotion-focussed coping subscale which was 63.49±10.64. Female patients used emotional social support, focussing on problems and venting emotions techniques (p<0.05). Patients who did not use alcohol received higher scores from religious coping subscales, while patients who used alcohol scored higher from substance use and dysfunctional coping subscales (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Most schizophrenia patients were found to be using emotion-focussed coping methods.