Illness perception of dropout patients followed up at bipolar outpatient clinic, Turkey.
Dropout is a common problem in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses including bipolar disorders (BD). The aim of the present study is to investigate illness perceptions of dropout patients with BD. A cross sectional study was done on the participants who attended the Mood Disorder Outpatient Clinic at least 3 times from January 2003 through June 2008, and then failed to attend clinic till to the last one year, 2009, determined as dropout. Thirty-nine dropout patients and 39 attendent patients with BD were recruited for this study. A sociodemographic form and brief illness perception questionnaire were used to capture data. The main reasons of patients with BD for dropout were difficulties of transport (31%), to visit another doctor (26%), giving up drugs (13%) and low education level (59%) is significant for dropout patients. The dropout patients reported that their illness did not critically influence their lives, their treatment had failed to control their illnesses, they had no symptoms, and that their illness did not emotionally affect them. In conclusion, the nonattendance of patients with serious mental illness can result in non-compliance of therapeutic drug regimens, and a recurrence of the appearance symptoms. The perception of illness in dropout patients with BD may be important for understanding and preventing nonattendance.
Department of Psychiatry, Istanbul School of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: drserapb@yahoo.com.
Serap
S
Oflaz
Department of Psychosocial Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Hulya
H
Guveli
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Tevfik
T
Kalelioglu
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Senem
S
Akyazı
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Eren
E
Yıldızhan
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Kasım Candas
KC
Kılıc
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Sehnaz
S
Basyigit
Department of Psychiatry, Istanbul School of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Filiz
F
Ozdemiroglu
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Fatma
F
Akyuz
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Esra
E
Gokce
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Sevda
S
Bag
Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey.
Erhan
E
Kurt
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Istanbul Commerce University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Esat Timucin
ET
Oral
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
Bipolar disorder; Dropout; Illness perception