Virtual reality assessment of medication compliance in patients with schizophrenia.
Medication compliance is essential to treating the symptoms of schizophrenia effectively. This study utilized a virtual reality (VR) apartment paradigm to assess medication compliance behaviors in 25 patients with schizophrenia and in 16 healthy control subjects. Participants were assigned a prescription consisting of three medications and were asked to self-administer this regimen in 15 min. Results demonstrate that patients had considerably more difficulty in complying with the medication regimen than did controls. They manifested significantly more quantitative errors, and were much less accurate in consuming the medications at the assigned time. Significant differences in performance between these groups were also evidenced by a variety of validated neuropsychological measures. Correlations between the data may suggest a convergent validity for this new VR task. Future research will investigate the validity of this task in predicting additional measures of psychosocial functioning.
Baker
Elizabeth K
EK
Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, Connecticut 06106, USA. ebaker@harthosp.org
Kurtz
Matthew M
MM
Astur
Robert S
RS
D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012381:Role Playing; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012646:Self Administration / Q000523:psychology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents