Depression and Drug Non- Adherence

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the different levels of drug non-adherence in patients suffering from Depression. Design: A casecontrolled study. Place and Duration of Study: Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar, From February 2008 to August 2008. Patients and Method: 50-Cases were selected from the out patient department with the DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive disorder, 50- non psychotic patients were selected as controls. Both sexes were included. The basic socio-demographic characteristics and the clinical profile of all the patients were collected. The level of drug non-adherence was recorded at week 4, week 8 and week 12. SPSS version 15 was used for statistical analysis. The applied method for group comparison was the Chi-square test. Results: The age in mean was 33.78 ± 11.30 for the sample and 30.65 ± 9.40 for control group. 38% of these patients were males and 62% females. 58% were married and uneducated from lowersocio-economical class. 70% of the study group and 59% of control group received treatment. The rates of non adherence were statistically not significant at week 4. However, at week 8 and week 12 the rates of non adherence were statistically significant with the p values of less than (0.001) respectively. Discussion: Rates of non-adherence with psychotropic / antidepressants are difficult to summarize because they varywith setting, diagnosis, severity of illness and type of adherence difficulties. Drug non-adherence is a serious clinical problem and it has direct effects on illness management and prognosis. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that the outcome for patients who vary medication doses without consulting a professional is poor.