Adherence to the treatment and outpatient appointments in psychiatric patients

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the adherence with treatment and outpatient appointments among patients who had been hospitalized in inpatient clinic of Department of Psychiatry of Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine in 2011. MaterialandMethod: Clinicalrecords of patientswereanalyzedinitially. Axis I psychiatricdisorders of patientswhichwerediagnosedbyusing DSM-IV-TR criteriaandassociatedcharacteristics of disorderswerecompleted in thesocio-demographicdata form. Accordingtoourretrospectiveadherencescalewhichwasbased on MoriskyAdherenceScale, patients' adherencetotheappointments at thefirstandthirdmonthsafterdischargingfromhospitalandtakingtheirmedication as recommendedwerechecked. Findings:Accordingtothecurrentstudy, thereasonshaveeffects on thepatients' adherencewereAxis I andAxis II psychiatricdisordersaccordingto DSM-IV, number of dailymedicationstaken, presence of comorbidmedicalillnesses, familyhistory of psychiatricillnessesand presence of insight. Conclusion: Theresults of thisstudyhaveshownthatthe rate of non-adherencewithtreatmentchangesbetween16.7% -68.8 % accordingtodisorder. Althoughmedicaltreatmentsanddrugindustrydevelopdaybyday, therehavebeennochanges in thetreatmentadherenceratios in thepastyears. Togeneratepossiblesolutions, treatmentadherenceshould be assessed in allclinicalinterviewsandifpatient is non-adherentthisissueshould be handledseriously.