Investigation of knowledge and attitudes of nurses working in psychiatry units about long-acting antipsychotic treatments

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of nurses working in psychiatric units towards the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics in patients with chronic psychiatric disorders. Method: The study is a descriptive study, and data was collected between March 2022 and June 2022. Data in the research; It was collected with the form created by transferring the Personal Information Form and the Information and Attitude Questionnaire on Depot Antipsychotics to the internet. A total of 78 nurses meeting the inclusion criteria were reached. Descriptive statistics, numbers, percentages, means, standard deviations, and chi-square analysis were used to evaluate the data. Results: Results showed that 87.2% of nurses were willing to administer depot antipsychotics to patients, all of them communicated with patients while administering treatment, and 39.7% reported not receiving education on depot antipsychotic treatments and administration. 75.6% of nurses reported that depot antipsychotic treatments were not stigmatizing, 94.9% believed they were effective in preventing relapse, 93.6% thought they were a suitable treatment option for current conditions, 91% believed their advantages were greater than their disadvantages, and 97.4% thought patient decision was important in starting and continuing treatment. The majority of nurses gave positive responses in terms of their knowledge, attitudes, and management roles towards depot antipsychotic treatment. Conclusion: In the study, nurses stated that they had positive knowledge and attitudes about the side effects of depot antipsychotics, their use, patient autonomy, increased adherence to treatment, reduced relapse, etc., but they wanted to update their knowledge about depot antipsychotics. The knowledge and attitudes of nurses can be changed with in-service training at certain intervals. A follow-up system can be developed for the application times of depot antipsychotic treatments to ensure treatment follow-up and regularity, and it is recommended to establish special depot clinics.