RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Psychopathological comorbidity in psychiatric patients is a common issue of epidemiological studies. Still, co-diagnoses have been suspected of being an artefact of a defective nosography rather than a realistic representation of multiple disorders co-existing in the same patient. This research aims at studying multiple disorders related to Axis I and Axis II of the DSM-IV in patients suffering from multiple, acute, and recurring psychotic episodes. Further, we aim to explore correlations between multiplicity of disorders and quality of life. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experimental sample includes 30 patients having principal diagnoses belonging to the Axis I, regarded as major psychoses, and the control sample includes 39 volunteers, without any present or previous psychotic disorder. As to measuring instruments, two questionnaires have been used: the MOS (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form Health Survey, by Stein et al.) and TALEIA-400A (Test for AxiaL Evaluation and Interview for clinical, personnel, and guidance Applications, by L. Boncori et al.). A multiple analysis of variance has been calculated to verify differences in number of disorders between experimental and control groups, and bivariate correlations to verify negative relationship between co-diagnoses and quality of life. RESULTS: The patients' group showed significantly more disorders than the control group (p = 0.0007); subgroups of patients different in number and quality of co-diagnosis also significantly differed as to overall profile elevation and as to cognitive efficiency; the correlation between co-diagnoses and quality of life is significant and negative (r = -0.62, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our data fit to outcomes from other studies showing that comorbidities can be regarded as an index of disorder severity.