Schizophrenia can devastate the lives of people who suffer from it and the lives of their families. People with schizophrenia suffer distress, disability, reduced productivity and lowered quality of life (QoL) (Sartorius, 1997). The development of QoL measures for use in psychiatric disorders has not progressed at the pace it has in other clinical disciplines (Hunt & McKenna, 1993). Psychiatrists use questionnaires and schedules to determine mental state and assess treatment regimes, and such measures are designed as an adjunct to clinical interview. Quality of life instruments, on the other hand, are not designed to guide diagnosis, but are intended as measures of patient-assessed health and well-being, and are constructed to include issues of importance to patients. A number of instruments exist to measure health status and health-related QoL. For example, the SF-36 health survey questionnaire (Ware & Sherbourne, 1992), the Nottingham Health Profile (Hunt et al, 1986) and the Sickness Impact Profile (Bergner et al, 1981) are all general measures of health status that can be used to assess functioning and well-being in any patient group. However, such generic measures can often overlook the QoL concerns of specific patient groups. Researchers have argued strongly for the development of a robust QoL instrument specific to schizophrenia, based on the subjective judgement of patients and including only relevant items that are expected to change (Awad et al, 1997). These authors report the dearth of reliable and validated QoL scales that are sensitive enough to detect the relatively small changes that patients experience in clinical trials. Although there are a number of measures available for the assessment of QoL in people with schizophrenia, these measures cannot be considered appropriate for evaluating interventions for the following reasons :