ABSTRACT
Chronic mental disorders exert a broad range of effects on the lives of persons whom they afflict. These effects begin with the clinical signs and symptoms currently used to define major mental disorders, including hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thought processes in schizophrenia and chronic disturbances in mood in manic depressive and major depressive illnesses. However, the effects of these symptoms and underlying impairments in cognitive functioning exert much broader and disabling impacts on these persons' ability to live full and productive lives. Many persons with chronic mental illnesses suffer with impaired interpersonal relationships, reduced role functioning, vocational incapacity, and a lower quality of life.
