Enhancing antiepileptic drug adherence: a randomized controlled trial.
Suboptimal adherence to antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment is commonplace, and increases the risk of status epilepticus and sudden unexplained death in epilepsy. This randomized controlled trial was designed to demonstrate whether an implementation intention intervention involving the completion of a simple self-administered questionnaire linking the intention of taking medication with a particular time, place, and other activity can improve AED treatment schedule adherence. Of the 81 patients with epilepsy who were randomized, 69 completed a 1-month monitoring period with an objective measure of tablet taking (electronic registration of pill bottle openings, Medication Event Monitoring System [MEMS]). Intervention participants showed improved adherence relative to controls on all three outcomes: doses taken in total (93.4% vs. 79.1%), days on which correct dose was taken (88.7% vs. 65.3%), and doses taken on schedule (78.8% vs. 55.3%) (P<0.01). The implementation intention intervention may be an easy-to-administer and effective means of promoting AED adherence.
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2JF, UK.
Ian
I
Brown
Paschal
P
Sheeran
Markus
M
Reuber
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018579:Patient Selection; D012646:Self Administration; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000927:Anticonvulsants