Patient attitudes towards lithium.
Many patients discontinue prophylactic lithium treatment against medical advice. Knowledge of patient attitudes towards lithium treatment may help explain and prevent non-compliant behaviour. One hundred and forty patients given lithium treatment from 2 to 17 years were asked what they found most advantageous about the treatment and what they found most disadvantageous. Seventy-five per cent of the patients experienced freedom from symptoms and the reestablishment of social functions in the family and in work as the main benefit of the treatment. Twenty-five per cent perceived no other advantages than possibly the satisfaction of demands from the family or the doctor. Seventy per cent of the patients considered various somatic and non-somatic complaints the main disadvantage of lithium treatment and 30% found no disadvantages at all. Psychological and other non-somatic complaints related to work, training, patient status, and the administration of lithium tablets were almost as frequent as somatic complaints. The advantages and disadvantages perceived by the patients did not necessarily correspond with the physician's perception of good or bad treatment response or the presence of unwanted effects.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance
D008094:Lithium