Adherence to Psychotropic Drugs among Patients with Psychiatric Disorders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26463/rjns.12_2_9Keywords:
Medication adherence, Non-adherence, Psychotropic drugs, Psychiatric disorders.Abstract
Background: Even though psychotropic medication is an effective treatment modality, high rates of nonadherence to these medications is common among patients with psychiatric disorders. One of the biggest challenges in treating psychiatric patients is lack of medication adherence which can lead to relapse, rehospitalisation and poor quality of life.
Aims: To assess adherence to psychotropic medications among psychiatric patients.
Materials and Methods: The study adopted descriptive cross sectional design. The sample comprised of 300 psychiatric patients who visited the Out Patient Department of Psychiatry at a selected hospital. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess the level of adherence to medication.
Results: A total of 300 patients participated in the study. Majority (62.7%) of the subjects were adherent and 37.3% of the subjects were non-adherent to psychotropic drugs. The mean adherence score was 6.26 (±2.35). The study revealed that there was a significant association of adherence to psychotropic drugs and patients place of living (p=.044).
Conclusion: In treating psychiatric patients, non-adherence to medicines is a significant challenge faced by healthcare professionals and it results in poor outcome.
References
1. World Health Organization. Mental Disorders affect one in four people. Geneva Oct- 4. Available from www://www.int/whr/2001/media centre
2. Murthy RS. National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-2016. Indian J Psychiatry 2017;59(1):21-6.
3. Townsend MC, Morgan KI. Psychiatric mental health nursing. 9th edition. Philadelphia: FA Davis company; 2020.
4. World Health Organisation. Pharmacological treatment of mental disorder in primary health care. Available from whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/ 2009/9789241547697_eng.pdf
5. Pareek B, Raman K. Factors affecting noncompliance to psychotropic drugs of patients with psychosis as perceived by their family members attending the psychiatric outpatient department. Nurs Midwifery Res J 2013;9(2):56-64.
6. Sreevani R. Guide to mental health and psychiatric nursing, 1st edition. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publisher; 2004.
7. Moncrieff J, Cohen D. How do psychiatric drugs work? BMJ 2009;338:b1963. Available from: doi: 10.1136/bmj.b1963.
8. World Health Organization. Defining adherence. Chapter-1. Available from https://www.who.int/chp/knowledge/publications/adherence_Section1. pdf
9. Rao KN, George J, Sudarshan CY, Begum S. Treatment compliance and noncompliance in psychoses. Indian J Psychiatry 2017;59(1):69–77.
10. Arute JE, Eniojukan JF, Eboigbe NP. Adherence to psychotropic medications by outpatients in psychiatric hospital, Uselu Benin City, Nigeria. Value Health 2014;17(7):A460-1.
11. Siddiqui MA, Pattojoshi A, Khess CRJ. Factors affecting adherence in patients with schizophrenia. Int J Adv Med 2016;3(1):25-32. Available from: http://www.ijmedicine.com
12. Chukwujekwu CD, Adesokun OK. Prevalence of medication non-adherence among psychiatric patients in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. JBM 2017;5(4):1-10.
13. Ajiwangliu N, Chacko M. A study to assess the factors affecting medication compliance among patients with schizophrenia in a tertiary health care centre. Int J Sci Res 2016;5(3):24-6.
14. Lucca JM, Ramesh M, Parthasarathi G, Ram D. Incidence and factors associated with medication non-adherence in patients with mental illness: A cross-sectional study. J Postgrad Med 2015;61(4):251–6. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943371/
15. Miasso AI, Telles Filho PC, Borges TL, Pereira Júnior AD, Giacchero Vedana KG et al. Adherence to psychotropic medications and associated factors in primary health care. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2016;37(10):775-783. Avaialble from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27548290
16. Martin LR, Williams SL, Haskard KB, DiMatteo MR. The challenge of patient adherence. Ther Clin Risk Manag 2005;1(3):189–99. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1661624/
17. Boosting medication adherence to psychotropic drugs. [Internet]. (Cited 24 Jan). Available from: URL:https://www.empr.com/features/boostingmedication- to psychotropic drug.
18. World Health Organisation. Factors affecting Medication and intervention used to improve. Available from apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/ Js4883e/8.5.4.html
19. Eticha T, Teklu A, Ali D, Solomon G, Alemayehu A. Factors associated with medication adherence among patients with schizophrenia in Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia. PLoS One 2015;10(3): e0120560. Available from: doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120560.
20. Thompson K, Kulkarni J, Sergejew AA. Reliability and validity of a new Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) for the psychoses. Schizophrenia Res 2000;42:241-7.
21. Ahmed N, Gandhi S, Baruah A. Effectiveness of specific intervention on treatment adherence of persons with mental illness: A pilot study. Indian J Psychiatry 2015;57(4):403-6.
