Validation of a subjective quality of life questionnaire (S.QUA.LA) in schizophrenia.

We developed and validated a self-administered questionnaire (Subjective Quality of Life Analysis, S.QUA.L.A.) to measure subjective quality of life. S.QUA.L.A. is a multidimensional instrument. This scale includes 22 domains of life. It covers traditional areas (food, family relation etc)., and more abstract aspects of life (politic, justice, freedom, truth, beauty and art, love). For each domain, patients are asked to evaluate their degree of satisfaction. They have also to indicate how important this domain is for them. We questioned 92 patients with schizophrenia and 357 para-medical students. The research demonstrated reproducibility, high internal consistency reliability, and sensitivity to change. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was performed. A five-factor solution was selected, showing a great contribution of different dimensions of the self. Determinants of quality of life were identified by using correlations with Lehman's Quality of Life Interview (QOLI), and with measures of psychopathology and social functioning. Satisfaction approach and QOLI showed the same construct. We confirmed the influence of symptoms of depression and anxiety on subjective quality of life assessment, and the poor impact of disease parameters.

Impulsivity but not venturesomeness is related to morningness.

The Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) is a psychometrically sound instrument available in several languages, including French, aimed at arranging individuals along a continuum from high "eveningness" to high "morningness." On the other hand, impulsivity is involved in many personality disorders and is thought to be orthogonal to venturesomeness, which can be seen as a component of the broader construct of sensation seeking. We hypothesized that evening-type subjects would be more impulsive than morning-types. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to students, and only complete forms were analyzed (194 males and 358 females). A four-way analysis of covariance showed significant effects of age, gender and impulsivity, but not venturesomeness, on morningness in the sense of a higher degree of eveningness in more impulsive subjects. In addition, the correlation coefficients in both genders were similar to those reported in smaller samples. Our findings deserve further interest because, regardless of gender, they suggest a possible physiopathological approach to impulsivity that may be accessible by circadian interventions such as midday bright light exposure or pharmacological treatments.

Cross-cultural study of the Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy Questionnaire (IVE-7).

The construct of impulsivity has gained interest in the last decades, and has been developed from different theoretical positions. Among these, the Eysencks proposed a specific self-administered questionnaire (IVE-7) for measuring two components, Impulsiveness (IMP) and Venturesomeness (VENT), which are included within their psychoticism-extraversion-neuroticism (P-E-N) system of personality. In the current study, the IVE-7 was translated into French and back-translated into English. Students filled out the French version, and data were analyzed for males and females separately. The scales reliabilities are similar between languages for IMP and VENT. The exploratory factor analyses revealed two acceptable three-factor solutions, although they failed to clearly identify the third factor. The factor similarity between genders was found very satisfactory using three different methods. The French and English factorial solutions also showed a very good level of similarity in each gender. Finally, the IMP was positively correlated with the Motor Impulsivity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale-10 (BIS-10) and with Dickman's Dysfunctional Impulsivity scale, and independent of the Spielberger Trait-Anxiety Inventory (TAI). We conclude that IMP and VENT are relatively stable between cultures and can be used reliably in French-speaking samples.