MedWire News: A 6-week psychoeducation program substantially improves adherence to treatment, and potentially outcomes, among patients undergoing bipolar affective disorder (BAD) rehabilitation, results of a Turkish study indicate.
Rates of nonadherence in BAD are estimated as being between 20% and 60%, with approximately 33% of patients reported as quitting treatment at least twice without the approval of a doctor.
To determine the impact of psychoeducation on the durability of medical treatment in BAD, Fatma Eker (Duzce University) and Sirin Harkin (Zonguldak Karaelmas University Hospital) randomly assigned 71 patients who met the criteria for BAD to participate in a psychoeducation program consisting of six, 2-hour weekly educational sessions in groups of 10-12 patients (intervention group) or to receive standard care (control group).
The participants were evaluated for treatment adherence before and after the test phase using the Attitudes towards Neuroleptic Treatment (ANT) scale, the Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), and the McEvoy treatment observation form.
Prior to psychoeducation, 40.0% of patients in the intervention group were adherent to their medication, compared with 86.7% after psychoeducation. By comparison, treatment adherence prior to randomization in the control group was 38.9%, and fell to 24.2% at the end of the study phase. This between-group difference for postintervention adherence was statistically significant.
Further analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between baseline and postintervention average scores for the MARS and ANT scales in the intervention group, while no significant difference was observed for the control group.
The team concludes in the Journal of Affective Disorders: "For BAD patients prone to non-adherence, adherence to treatment can be increased, re-hospitalization can be prevented and quality of life can be improved by means of providing a psychoeducation program about illness, symptoms and reasons for illness, course of disease, treatment and ways of coping with the illness."
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