فاطمه رئیسی

Introduction and Objective: A thorough understanding of how people with schizophrenia experience critical situations such as an epidemic is important. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the lived experiences of patients with schizophrenia residing in a care center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Methodology: The qualitative research method used was phenomenology. Patients with schizophrenia who were residing at the Sarai Ehsan Rehabilitation Center were selected purposefully. Based on the rule of theoretical saturation, sampling continued until 31 patients were included. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The analysis method followed Colaizzi's approach, and the data were manually analyzed by the researchers. Findings: Data analysis led to the identification of 308 primary codes. Five main themes were extracted: (1) patients’ perceptions and causes of the disease, (2) patients’ views about quarantine, (3) feelings and emotions during the period of quarantine and illness, (4) patients’ actions during the period of quarantine and illness, and (5) sources of information about the disease. These main themes included 32 sub-themes. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting quarantine significantly affected the experiences of patients with schizophrenia. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are encouraged to use these findings in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia during infectious disease outbreaks.