Patients' techniques for coping with schizophrenia: an exploratory study.

Non-hospitalized schizophrenic patients were administered a questionnaire designed to assess how they coped with various symptoms of their illness. Of the 200 subjects in the sample, 92 gave additional descriptions of coping techniques which they found useful in addition to those listed in the questionnaire. This report presents the latter findings and categorizes the range of coping techniques described. Patients used a variety of such techniques ranging across a spectrum of behaviour change, socialization, cognitive control and use of medical care as well as behaviours which were likely to have been identified by others as symptomatic of the illness.