SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DRUG NON-COMPLIANCE

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the different levels of drug non-compliance in
patients with schizophrenia and to find out its relationship to relapses of the disorder and admission to the hospital.
Design: A randomized, retrospective, case- controlled study. Place and Duration of Study: Conducted at Government
Mental Hospital Peshawar, from April 2001 to December 2002. Patients and Method: 50-Cases were randomly (each
fifth patient) selected from all the admissions with the DSM-IV diagnosis of Schizophrenia, 50- matched controls were
randomly (each fifth patient) selected from the outdoor patients. Both sexes were included. The basic
sociodemographic characteristics and the clinical profile of all the patients were collected. The level of drug noncompliance
with previous history of admissions to hospital and total number of relapses. SPSS version 10 was used
for statistical analysis. The applied method for group comparison was the Chi-square test. Results: The mean age of
study group was 33.54 ± 8.15 years as compare to 32.56 ± 9.02 years of control group, most participants were men,
and a predominant proportion of participants were married. Majority of the patients were from the lower socio-economic
class. Scores on the drug non- compliance were statistically significant with a p value of (0.027). The difference
between the two groups, regarding the previous number of relapses was statistically significant with a p value (0.002).
The number of previous admission was also statistically significant and the p value was (0.017). 74.1% of the patients
with poor drug compliance relapsed, while 71% of patients with poor compliance needed admission. Conclusion: An
important measure of out come is compliance with treatment. A substantial proportion of patients with schizophrenia
continues to relapse and are readmitted to the hospital as a result of non-compliance to treatment.