Social contacts, friends and satisfaction with friendships in patients with psychotic, mood and neurotic disorders 1 year after hospitalisation: data from five European countries.

While objective and subjective social relationship indicators appear to be weakly correlated concepts, there is no variation in either indicator across diagnostic groups when confounders are taken into account among patients with severe mental illness. Interventions specifically targeting social relationships are needed, but they do not necessitate diagnosis-specific adaptations.