PMH26: CHANGE IN HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA TAKING ANTIPSYCHOTIC AGENTS 86 Abstracts 26% when patients were rated as “improved,” and 45%, 50%, respectively when rated as “much better.” Mean 7-point item scores improved by 0.46 points PANSS, 0.23 points QLS for “improved” patients, and by 0.88, 0.92, respectively for “much better” patients. Minimal changes were seen for all items when patients were rated as “unchanged.” The relationship between clinician rat- ings and score changes was stable over multiple assess- ments in this large sample. CONCLUSION: These data describe the amount of change that represents clinically important improvement related to treatment based on commonly used symptom and QOL scales. Planning sample sizes for clinical trials can be based on percentage change in scores or mean item scores to aid clinicians and researchers in understanding meaningful treatment ef- fects. PMH24 TRANSLATIONS OF THE MIGRAINE SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE (MSQ): A PSYCHOMETRIC COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ENGLISH, FINNISH, DUTCH, HUNGARIAN, AND SPANISH TRANSLATIONS Grossman PR, Black LK, Kwong J Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC, USA OBJECTIVES: The MSQ (Migraine Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire) measures migraine-related quality of life in three dimensions [Role Restrictive (RR), Role Pre- ventive (RP), and Emotional Function (EF)]. The objec- tive of this analysis was to compare the psychometric properties of the Finnish (FN), Dutch (HD), Hungarian (HG), Spanish (SP), and UK English translations with the original US English version of the MSQ. METHODS: One hundred and ninety-eight Finns, 127 Dutch, 169 Hungarians, 116 New Zealanders, and 169 Spaniards, participated in a multinational migraine clinical trial in which the MSQ was completed at baseline and after a 3- month treatment period with customary therapy or naratriptan 2.5 mg. The distribution of item responses, item-discriminant validity and scale-level reliability for the MSQ translations were examined and compared to the previously published US English version results. RE- SULTS: The distribution of responses for each item was negatively skewed for all translations. The full range of the response categories was used by migraineurs from all countries except for the FN version in the clinical trial. Every translation of the MSQ possessed item-scale corre- lations that were higher for the hypothesized scale com- pared to competing scales. Similar to the US English ver- sion results, baseline Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for the three MSQ dimensions were greater than 0.82 for all translations. The MSQ translations were sensitive to de- tect intervention differences after 3 months of naratrip- tan treatment for migraines. CONCLUSIONS: The MSQ translations have demonstrated item-level discriminant validity, reliability, and sensitivity to detect treatment changes in quality of life and has cross-cultural empirical validity. The MSQ is an effective tool in assessing mi- graine-related quality of life across different cultures. PMH25 THE IMPACT OF SCHIZOPHRENIA ON HEALTH- RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQL) FOR PATIENTS ADMITTED TO PSYCHIATRIC UNITS OF GENERAL ACUTE CARE HOSPITALS Durkin MB1, Edell WS2, Mody SH1, Adams BE2, Repp EA2 1Janssen Pharmaceutica, Titusville, NJ, USA; 2Mental Health Outcomes, Lewisville, TX, USA OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of schizophrenia versus other chronic conditions on health-related quality of life (HRQL). METHODS: Patients who were admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit at one of the 100� acute care hospitals using the CQI�sm Outcomes Measurement System were administered the SF-36 health status survey. All patients with a discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia who completed the SF-36 and were admitted to adult (n � 233) or geropsychiatric (n � 380) inpatient units were selected. Randomly generated observations were drawn from general US population SF-36 data to con- struct two general population cohorts matching the adult and geriatric schizophrenia samples, respectively, in dis- tribution of age and gender. Adult and geriatric schizo- phrenic cohorts were compared to their corresponding matched general population cohort on each of the eight SF-36 domains. Comparisons were also made to three disease cohorts: Hypertension, Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), and Diabetes. Independent sample t-tests were used to evaluate differences between the groups. RE- SULTS: Schizophrenic patients from both adult and geri- atric groups had significantly lower scores (P � .001) on virtually all mental and physical HRQL domains when compared to the general US population and to patients with hypertension or diabetes. Both groups of schizo- phrenics scored lower (P � .001) on mental health do- mains when compared to CHF patients. Adult schizo- phrenics scored higher in the physical health domains than CHF patients (P � .05), while geriatric schizophren- ics were similar to CHF patients in those domains. CON- CLUSIONS: Schizophrenia’s association with lower HRQL extends beyond mental health to physical health status. The physical health status of schizophrenics is more impaired than those observed in patients with dia- betes and hypertension, and is comparable to patients with CHF. PMH26 CHANGE IN HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA TAKING ANTIPSYCHOTIC AGENTS Edell WS1, Durkin MB2, Mody SH2, Adams BE1, White RE2, Qiu AZ1 1Mental Health Outcomes, Lewisville, TX, USA; 2Janssen Pharmaceutica, Titusville, NJ, USA Abstracts 87 The perceived health status of individuals with severe psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia, is an important element of disease burden and quality of life. The effect of antipsychotic therapies on psychiatric symptoms is well-understood. However, more information about the effects of antipsychotics on health status is needed. OB- JECTIVE: To examine changes in health-related quality of life (HRQL) from inpatient admission to follow-up of adult and geriatric patients with schizophrenia treated with conventional or atypical antipsychotic agents. METHODS: Data were obtained from the CQI�SM Out- comes Measurement System, an ORYX (JCAHO) ac- cepted performance improvement system, which tracks patients admitted to adult or geropsychiatric inpatient programs in over 100 general hospitals across 35 states. Health status was measured by the SF-36 at time of ad- mission and at three (geriatric) or six months (adult) post-discharge. Patients with a primary discharge diagno- sis of schizophrenia (ICD-9-CM codes 295.10–295.90) who completed the SF-36 and were treated with antipsy- chotic agents were included. One sample t-tests were used to test the null hypothesis that the mean change is equal to zero. RESULTS: Mean scores were higher (i.e., healthier) at follow-up, as compared to admission, on all eight domains of the SF-36 for the adult schizophrenic group (n � 37) and seven of eight domains for the geriat- ric schizophrenic group (n � 38). Statistically significant improvements were noted on five of the eight scales. Largest improvements were found on Role Physical (P � 0.001), Role Emotional (P � 0.001), and Social Func- tioning (P � 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Marked improve- ment in diverse aspects of HRQL among schizophrenic patients treated with conventional or atypical antipsy- chotic agents supports the humanistic value of antipsy- chotic medications beyond simple symptom ameliora- tion. PMH27 THE IMPACT OF DEPRESSION ON HEALTH- RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQL) Mody SH1, Edell WS2, Durkin MB1, Adams BE2, Repp EA2 1Janssen Pharmaceutica, Titusville, NJ, USA; 2Mental Health Outcomes, Lewisville, TX, USA OBJECTIVE: To describe the effect of depression on health-related quality of life (HRQL) utilizing the SF-36 health status survey. The scores of patients with depres- sion were compared to age and gender matched US popu- lation norms and contrasted to results of similar research on patients with other psychiatric disorders. METHODS: SF-36 scores were collected from patients admitted to adult (n � 600) or geriatric (n � 4439) psychiatric pro- grams within acute care hospitals who had an ICD-9-CM discharge diagnosis of depressive disorder. Adult and ge- riatric US population norms were simulated using data from the Medical Outcomes Study Manual and Interpre- tation Guide to match the age and gender distributions of the adult and geriatric depression groups. Admission SF-36 scores for the adult and geriatric depression groups were compared to these age and gender matched US popula- tion norms using independent sample t-tests. The find- ings were then placed in context of SF-36 scores for other psychiatric conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and cognitive disorder. RESULTS: HRQL for both the adult and geriatric groups of depressed patients was significantly lower than the simulated US population norms for all eight domains of the SF-36, for physical health as well as mental health (P � 0.001). The greatest differences were observed in the Role Physical, Social Functioning, and Role Emotional domains. Adult inpa- tients with depression had similar scores on all domains to adult patients with the other psychiatric diagnoses studied. However, geriatric patients with depression had lower scores on HRQL across all domains versus geriat- ric patients with other psychiatric illnesses. CONCLU- SIONS: Depression has a strong negative association with both adult and geriatric patients’ perceived HRQL. Depressed patients not only had the expected decreases on mental health domains, but also scored significantly lower on physical health domains. Finally, depression in geriatric patients is associated with greater decrements in HRQL than other psychiatric illnesses examined. PMH28 QUALITY OF LIFE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PATIENTS WITH EPISODIC AND TRANSFORMED MIGRAINE Meletiche DM1, Lofland JH1, Young WB2, Hopkins MM2 1Office of Health Policy and Clinical Outcomes, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Jefferson Headache Clinic, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA Currently there are no published studies comparing the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of transformed and episodic migraneurs. OBJECTIVES: The study objec- tive was to detect differences in HRQoL between patients with transformed migraine (TM) and episodic migraine (EM). METHODS: This retrospective study examined the HRQoL of transformed and episodic migraneurs of the Jefferson Headache Center during their first visit to the center. Data collected included the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaires as well as demographic information. A t-test with Bonferroni correction was used to test for sig- nificant differences in the SF-36 domains between the groups. RESULTS: To date, data has been collected on 62 patients, 31 from each group. There were no signifi- cant differences with respect to gender, race, age or the number of comorbid conditions between groups. Over the last 90 days prior to their first visit, patients with TM reported having a headache on an average of 77 days compared to EM patients who averaged 18 days with headache (P � 0.05). Compared to EM patients, patients with TM had statistically and clinically significant (�5 point difference) lower mean scores on the mental com-