Background: In Arab and Muslim-dominated countries,
spirituality and religiosity shape the belief and practices toward chronic
illnesses. No previous studies were published to assess adherence to and
satisfaction with antipsychotic medications in persons with schizophrenia in
the Arab world.
Objective: To assess medication adherence and treatment
satisfaction with antipsychotics in a sample of Palestinian people with
schizophrenia. Methodology: Medication adherence was assessed using the 8-item
Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Treatment satisfaction was assessed
using the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM 1.4).
Psychiatric symptoms were assessed using the expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating
Scale (BPRS-E). Data were entered and statistically analyzed using SPSS 16 for
windows. Results: A convenience sample of 131 persons with schizophrenia was
studied. Based on MMAS-8, 44 persons (33.6%) had a low rate, 58 (44.3%) had a
medium rate and 29 (22.1%) had a high rate of adherence. Age was significantly
correlated (P=0.028) with adherence score. However, variables like use of
monotherapy or atypical or depot antipsychotics were not significantly
associated with higher adherence. The means of satisfaction with regard to
effectiveness, side effects, convenience and global satisfaction were 72.6 ± 20.5,
67.9 ± 31.47, 63.2 ± 14.3 and 63.1 ± 18.8 respectively. There was a significant
difference in the means of effectiveness (P < 0.01), convenience (P <
0.01), global satisfaction (P < 0.01), but not side effects domains (P=0.1)
among persons with different levels of adherence. Furthermore, there was a
significant difference in the means of positive symptom score (P < 0.01),
manic (P < 0.01) and depression (P < 0.01) but not negative symptom score
(P=0.4) among persons with different levels of adherence.
Conclusions:
Medication nonadherence was common and was associated with low treatment
satisfaction scores and poor psychiatric scores. Medication related factors had
insignificant effects on adherence scores
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate differences in medication adherence, treatment satisfaction and clinical symptoms in schizophrenic outpatients taking different antipsychotic treatment regimens.
METHODOLOGY:
Medication adherence was measured using the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) while treatment satisfaction was measured using the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM 1.4). Psychiatric symptoms were measured using the 24-item expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-E). Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 16 for windows.
RESULTS:
A convenience sample of 131 schizophrenic patients was studied. Patients belonged to 7 groups based on their antipsychotic treatment regimens. There was no significant difference in the means of adherence (P=0.6) and BPRS domains: positive (P=0.6), negative (P=0.8), manic (P=0.2) and depression (P=0.9) scores among the studied groups. Satisfaction with side effect domain was significantly different among studied groups (P=0.006, F=3). However, no significant difference was found in other satisfaction domains: effectiveness (P=0.8), convenience (P=0.3), and global satisfaction (P=0.8).
CONCLUSIONS:
Medications adherence, most treatment satisfaction domains and clinical symptom scores were not significantly different among patients taking different antipsychotic regimens.