A Review of Factors Relating to Medication Non-Adherence in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe chronic mental illness affecting twenty million people worldwide. Although the incidence of schizophrenia remains low, its prevalence may remain high due to medication non-adherence. Knowing potential factors relating to non-adherence with medication among patients with schizophrenia by investigating existing literature is needed in order to understand the phenomenology of this situation. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the most common factors that affected medication non-adherence in patients with schizophrenia. A systematic review was conducted through a literature search on Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EBSCOhost, CINAHL Complete, ERIC, and Allied Health databases published from 1980 to 2021. Database searches were conducted with the terms “non-adherence to medication” “schizophrenia,” and “factors.” Eighty-six articles were found following the first-round search. Then seventy-eight articles were excluded due to irrelevant and duplicate tiles. Only eight articles were included for the final review. Per the findings, factors associated with medication non-adherence were categorized into four main themes: individual characteristics, cognitive appraisal, social influence, and health-care service. To improve medication adherence rates in patients with schizophrenia, psychiatric nurses must consider these specific factors while establishing nursing interventions.

Decreased resting-state neural signal in the left angular gyrus as a potential neuroimaging biomarker of schizophrenia: An amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and support vector machine analysis

“…Schizophrenia (SCH) is a psychological disorder characterized by progressive changes in brain function that result in symptoms including reduced social function, decreased motivation and emotion, hallucinations, and delusions ( 1 ). Currently, SCH diagnoses are primarily made based on the symptoms and clinical signs that patients exhibit ( 2 ).…”

Antipsychotic medication non-adherence and factors associated among patients with schizophrenia in eastern Ethiopia

“…Substance use can provide temporary relief from these symptoms, leading to a vicious cycle of non-adherence and substance use. It is important for physicians and other health professionals to understand the reasons behind non-adherence and substance use in order to develop effective interventions to improve patient outcomes [3,40].…”

“…Poor insight can range from absolute denial of illness and rejection of the precise diagnosis to symptom, mitigation and explanations, as well as a failure to recognize that medications are required to treat specific symptoms and lower the risk of relapse [ 22 ]. They avoided taking medication because they refused to admit that they were mentally ill and persistently non-adherence to their medication [ 40 ].…”