OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in the valuation of eight schizophrenia-related health states using a multi-attribute utility instrument (MAU) — the Assessment of Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQoL), and two scaling techniques: the time trade-off (TTO) and a visual analogue scale (VAS). METHODS: Eight schizophrenia-related health state scenarios based on severity of symptoms were presented to 87 participants from the general population. Scenarios were: A) ‘good' function with no movement disorders [extrapyramidal symptoms]; B) ‘good' function with movement disorders; C) ‘poor' function with no movement disorders; D) ‘poor' function with movement disorders; E) hospitalised relapse with no movement disorders; F) hospitalised relapse with movement disorders; G) post-hospitalisation with no movement disorders; and H) post-hospitalisation with movement disorders. Participants were educated about how the symptoms described in these scenarios could impact on quality of life and were then asked to value each health state using the AQoL, TTO, and a VAS ranging from 0–100. RESULTS: Mean utility values for all health states ranged from 0.68 to 0.01, 0.80 to 0.53, and 0.74 to 0.17 for the AQoL, TTO and VAS, respectively. For each instrument or scale there was a trend for higher utility values to be associated with better outcomes and lower utility values to be associated with poorer outcomes. There were differences between the global results for AQoL, TTO and VAS [Kruskal-Wallis test (p<0.001)] and differences between the utility measures for each health state, except between TTO and VAS results for health state A (p=0.655), and between the AQoL and VAS results for health state G (p=0.094). CONCLUSION: Utility values varied across health states and in most cases differed significantly between instrument and/or scale. For schizophrenia, the results from AQoL are most sensitive to differing symptom severity. However, further research comparing the different utility instruments is required in this disease area.