Attitudes toward Medication and Reasons for Non-Compliance in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Background:Non-compliance for the medication is an important area of concern in schizophrenia as it contributes to relapse and re-hospitalization of the patients. One of the ways to improve the drug compliance is to know crucial factors responsible for poor drug compliance and hence that proper strategies may be planned to improve patient's drug compliance.Aim:The aim of the following study is to find out the attitudes of patients toward medication and reasons for drug non-compliance in schizophrenia and its association with clinical and socio-demographic variables.Materials and Methods:The study was conducted on follow-up patients with schizophrenia for the duration of 5 months. Their socio-demographic details were noted and illness related variables were evaluated using Positive and Negative Syndrome scale (PANSS). Patient's attitudes toward medication and the reasons for treatment non-compliance were assessed using the standardized tools, which consist of Drug Attitude Inventory-10 scale and Rating of Medication Influences scale respectively.Results:Nearly 41.9% of our study sample were non-compliant to medication. A significant association has been found between non-compliance and younger age group, unemployment, early age of onset, high positive PANSS score and poorer insight into the illness. The significant reasons for non-compliance in our study were Denial of illness, financial burden, less access to treatment facilities, Side-effects of the medication, Feeling that the medication was unnecessary and Substance abuse.Conclusions:Findings suggest that there is a need to provide adequate information about mental illness and medications prescribed, to enhance medication compliance and to develop community mental health care facilities.

A study of drug attitude and medication adherence and its relationship with the impact of illness among the mentally ill

“…Similar to our findings, other reports revealed varying levels of drug attitude, depending upon occupation in patients with schizophrenia 13 . Employed status makes people to have a rational view about medication in order to be fit for occupation and free from illness.…”

“…Predictors of positive attitude towards medication in mental illness includes insight into the need for treatment, a higher attribution of the symptoms to a disorder, experience of less negative side effects, presence of biological causal beliefs, and less endorsement of psychological causal beliefs 5 . A positive attitude towards medication has a positive correlation with adherence 6,7 . So far, no study has examined drug attitude among Indian population using standardised rating scale.…”

Insight in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: relationship with behavior, mood and perceived quality of life, underlying causes and emerging treatments

“…Consistent with this, Misdrahi et al 18 and Lincoln et al 19 found that persons with poor insight were more likely to refuse to take antipsychotic medication, while others have found that groups with lower levels of adherence across cultures have consistently tended to have poorer clinical insight [20][21][22][23] .…”

Acupuncture in the Treatment of a Female Patient Suffering from Chronic Schizophrenia and Sleep Disorders

“…However, although such therapy has been reported to have many successes, the number of adverse effects associated with it is large [7], and noncompliance is always an important area of concern [8]. For instance, in previous research, a 47% nonadherence rate to pharmacotherapy was found in patients suffering from schizophrenia [9].…”