Shimelis Girma, Eba Abdisa and Teshale Fikadu
Background: Drug non adherence is a problem in all areas of medicine, and psychiatry is no exception. Mental health institutions are widely over burdened by mental ill patient who sought frequent treatment as a result of drug non adherence. Although patients suffering from psychiatric disorders are the most likely not to adhere to treatment than any other physical illness; there was no study done to determine the prevalence and associated factors of antipsychotic drug non adherence among schizophrenia patients in Ethiopia. So this study was aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of antipsychotic drug non-adherence among patients with schizophrenia attending at Amanuel mental specialized hospital. Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on 403 schizophrenia patients attending outpatient department of AMSH from March 26 to April 6, 2013. Morisky Medication Rating Scale and Drug Inventory Attitude were used to collect data. Three trained data collectors and one supervisor were involved in the data collection process. Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional review board of University of Gondar and Amanuel mental specialized hospital. Written informed consent was obtained from the respondents. Result: The study had response rate of 95.3%. A total of 268(66.5%) male were participated in this study. The mean age of participants was 32.7(SD+9.59 years) and age ranged from 18 to 57. Prevalence of antipsychotic drug non adherence was found to be 48.4%. The factors having co-morbid mental illness AOR=2.23, 95%CI (1.12, 4.45), Extra pyramidal side effect AOR=2.66, 95%CI (1.44, 4.91), Poly therapy AOR=2.37, 95%CI (1.21, 4.65), Negative attitude towards treatment AOR=3.79, 95%CI (1.56, 9.23) and alcohol use AOR=4.72, 95%CI (1.79, 12.46) were found to be significantly associated with antipsychotic drug non adherence. Conclusion: About half of patients were found to be nonadherent. The factors substance use, extra pyramidal side effects, co-morbid depression, attitude towards treatment and lack family encouragement were found to be significantly associated with drug non adherence. At last self-reported method used in this study tends to under estimate non adherence conducting further study by combining certain methods is of paramount importance.
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