A self-report scale predictive of drug compliance in schizophrenics: reliability and discriminative validity.

Schizophrenic patients' self-reports of their experience of neuroleptic treatment were used as the basis for the construction of a scale predictive of drug compliance. Reliability analysis of the responses of 150 patients indicated high internal consistency in the 30-item scale, and preliminary validation in the form of discriminant classification accurately assigned 89% of the sample to complaint and non-compliant groupings. Both discriminant and factor analyses suggest that maximum variability in responding is accounted for by items reflecting how the patient feels on medication, rather than what he knows or believes about medication.