The relationship between self-handicapping behavior and drug compliance in individuals with chronic mental illness

It is known that individuals with chronic mental illness use self-handicapping strategies for different purposes and in different ways. In particular, encountering threatening situations such as stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion due to mental illness or inadequate performance may be a sufficient reason for self-handicapping. However, individuals who self-handicapping have not gained an awareness of which behaviours are compatible or positive and which are undesirable. They may resort to self-handicapping behaviours that may disrupt their treatment process because they think that long-term medication use and regular check-ups lead to stigmatisation. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between self-handicapping behaviour and medication compliance in individuals with chronic mental illness. Permission was obtained from Necmettin Erbakan University Health Sciences Scientific Research Ethics Committee (2022/274). The population of the study consisted of patients who applied to Necmettin Erbakan University psychiatry outpatient clinic. The comprehensibility of the data collection tools was evaluated before the study and the data were collected between October and November 2022. The sample of the study consisted of 111 patients (45 male, 66 female) who agreed to participate in the study. Three forms including Introductory Information Form including sociodemographic characteristics and disease information, Self-Handicapping Scale (SHS), Morisky Treatment Compliance Scale (MTCS) were used to collect the data. In the findings of the study, those who came to outpatient clinic control irregularly had a higher mean score of Self-Handicapping (z=-3,207 p=0,001) and a higher mean score of Morisky Treatment Compliance Scale (z=-4,259 p=0,001) than those who came regularly. When analysed according to medication adherence status, irregular medication users had higher mean scores of Self-Handicapping (z=-2,509 p=0,012) and Morisky Treatment Compliance Scale (z=-4,788 p=0,001) than regular medication users. As a result of the research, the self-sabotage variable explained the Morisky treatment compliance scores at the level of 7.9%. With this study, it can be said that self-handicapping behaviours in individuals with chronic mental illness negatively affect medication compliance. Keywords: Chronic mental illness, compliance, medication, self-handicapping, treatment.