title: Awareness of illness in schizophrenia and outpatient treatment adherence.
abstract: We present a brief measure of awareness of illness in schizophrenia and test whether awareness is related to perceived need for and adherence to outpatient psychiatric treatment. A prospective design assessed treatment adherence, awareness of the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, symptoms, neurocognitive status, and substance abuse at baseline and 6-month follow-up in 89 persons with schizophrenia. Results indicate that persons with greater awareness perceived greater need for outpatient treatment and evidenced better adherence to outpatient treatment when adherence and awareness were measured concurrently. Awareness was not related to adherence at 6-month follow-up. In addition, neurocognitive impairment was associated with lower overall adherence to treatment when reported by collaterals at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Neurocognitive impairment was, however, associated with higher self-reported adherence to medication, which suggests that neurocognitive status may bias adherence reporting in persons with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: MEDSTAT Group, Washington, DC 20008, USA.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Cuffel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alford
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Owen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001364:Awareness; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents