BACKGROUND: Non-adherence with antipsychotic medication is common in patients with schizophrenia. AIMS: To establish the efficacy of adherence therapy (AT) compared to treatment as usual (TAU) in improving medication compliance in patients following an acute episode of schizophrenia. METHOD: The study was designed as a parallel group, single blind, randomised controlled trial. Fieldwork was conducted in four centres (3 in Germany and 1 in Switzerland) and involved a total of 161 patients. Patients received 8 sessions of AT in addition to treatment as usual. The main outcomes of this study were adherence and psychopathology at 12 weeks post discharge follow up. RESULTS: In total 80 patients received AT and 57 TAU. Intention-to-treat analysis included all randomised patients. Psychopathology, as determined using the PANSS-total, improved in the AT compared to TAU group by a mean of -6.16 points 12 weeks after discharge from hospital (p<.05). AT had no significant effects on patients' adherence, treatment attitudes or functioning. No significant adverse events were reported. CONCLUSION: AT improves psychopathology in patients recovering from an acute episode of schizophrenia.
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BACKGROUND: Non-adherence with antipsychotic medication is common in patients with schizophrenia. AIMS: To establish the efficacy of adherence therapy (AT) compared to treatment as usual (TAU) in improving medication compliance in patients following an acute episode of schizophrenia. METHOD: The study was designed as a parallel group, single blind, randomised controlled trial. Fieldwork was conducted in four centres (3 in Germany and 1 in Switzerland) and involved a total of 161 patients. Patients received 8 sessions of AT in addition to treatment as usual. The main outcomes of this study were adherence and psychopathology at 12 weeks post discharge follow up. RESULTS: In total 80 patients received AT and 57 TAU. Intention-to-treat analysis included all randomised patients. Psychopathology, as determined using the PANSS-total, improved in the AT compared to TAU group by a mean of -6.16 points 12 weeks after discharge from hospital (p<.05). AT had no significant effects on patients' adherence, treatment attitudes or functioning. No significant adverse events were reported. CONCLUSION: AT improves psychopathology in patients recovering from an acute episode of schizophrenia.
Authors: Richard J Drake; Merete Nordentoft; Gillian Haddock; Celso Arango; W Wolfgang Fleischhacker; Birte Glenthøj; Marion Leboyer; Stefan Leucht; Markus Leweke; Phillip McGuire; Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg; Dan Rujescu; Iris E Sommer; René S Kahn; Shon W Lewis Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2015-03-05 Impact factor: 9.306