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Introduction: One or more negative symptoms are present in 57,6% of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder [Bobes et al, 2010]. These symptoms are responsible for impaired social functioning and have impact on the quality of life. There are no epidemiological studies that analyse the prevalence of negative symptoms and their impact on life quality in Lithuania. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of negative symptoms on quality of life in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Methods: Participants were 48 adults with schizophrenia (n=36) or schizoaffective disorders (n=12). All participants provided informed consent. All participants were administered a sociodemographic data form, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Negative symptoms were assessed by the Self-evaluation of Negative Symptoms (SNS). The Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to measure health-related quality of life. Results: The results of SF-36 scales significantly correlated with SNS subscales. All SNS subscales correlated with general health result, vitality, social functioning and emotional well-being as well as in overal quality of life. Signifficant correlations were observed between the total scores of SNS and physical activity (r=-0,404, p=0,004), general health (r=-0,626, p<0,001), vitality (r=-0,683, p=0,004), social functioning (r=-0,53, p<0,001), role limitations (r=0,354, p=0,014), emotional well-being (r=-0,662, p<0,001) in SF-36 scales. Conclusions: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as social withdrawal, diminished emotional range, alogia, avolition and anhedonia are associated with impaired quality of life. We found a strong relation between negative symptoms and quality of life, however further studies can support this point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a major health-care problem, but despite the importance of this issue, there were no validated tools for negative symptoms evaluation in Lithuania. Dolfus et al created a self-rated negative symptom scale (SNS) in concordance with the NIMH-MATRICS consensus statement on negative symptoms showing great psychometric properties. Therefore, we decided to validate this scale in Lithuania. Objectives: To validate the SNS in Lithuania and to evaluate the severity of negative symptoms of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in Kaunas Clinics. Methods: We performed a double translation of SNS from French to Lithuanian then distributed the SNS, brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS), mini international neuropsychiatric interview (MINI) to stable, non-psychotic patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to ICD 10 in in-patient and out-patient settings. We measured internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity comparing the results from SNS scale with negative and positive symptom scores from BPRS. We also performed principal component analysis, the factor retained had an eigenvalue >0,8. Results: We evaluated 51 patients. Cronbach's coefficient (a = 0,8) showed good internal consistency. Factor analysis extracted one factor that accounted for 55,3 % of the variance. SNS score significantly correlated with negative subscores of BPRS (r = 0,87, p <0,001) and did not correlate with positive symptom subscores showing good convergent and discriminant validity. Mean score of SNS was 19,3 (SD = 9,2) with 54,8 % of patients scoring more than 20. Conclusions: SNS is a valuable tool for negative symptoms evaluation showing great psychometric properties. Most of the evaluated patients had severe negative symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: the relationship between the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is understudied. Moreover, health science students are the future leaders and advocates of vaccination efforts. Therefore, it is essential to understand the origins of vaccine hesitancy and evaluate if the adverse psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic influence it. (2) Methods: we shared an anonymous questionnaire among health-science students via institutional emails of two Lithuanian universities. Results were summarized with odds ratios and mean differences. (3) Results: a total of 1545 health sciences students answered the questionnaire. Almost a fifth of the respondents claimed that they were unsure about getting vaccinated, and nearly one out of ten claimed that they would not get vaccinated. Medicine students, non-infected students, and students who volunteered in a COVID-19 ward were significantly more willing to get vaccinated compared to other health science students. Vaccine hesitant respondents reported a more significant negative effect of COVID-19 on their income and belief in the future. (4) Conclusions: the results of this study showed that negative psychosocial impact on income and 'belief in future' were positively associated with vaccine hesitancy. Having been diagnosed with COVID-19 was significantly associated with being doubtful towards vaccination.