Noncompliance to treatment among persons with mental illness

Abstract

Background: Noncompliance to treatment is an alarming issue challenging the entire mental health-care system. If this issue is tackled by the institutions and mental health-care professionals, a drastic change can be brought to the treatment of mentally ill and prevent unnecessary hospitalization due to relapse. Noncompliance to psychiatric treatment among 569 patients revealed that 328 (58.2%) were complied with the treatment and 236 (41.8%) were noncompliant to psychiatric treatment. Objectives:The objectives were to assess the noncompliance to treatment among person with mental illness and to identify the factors contributing to the noncompliance to treatment. Materials and Methods: A quantitative approach with cross-sectional descriptive design using retrospective analysis was adopted for the study. All patients attending psychiatric unit were screened and 100 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected through nonprobability convenience sampling technique from the adult psychiatry unit, IMHANS, Kozhikode. The data collection instruments were a sociodemographic pro forma, noncompliance checklist, and a checklist on factors contributing to the noncompliance to treatment. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: A population of 156 patients were screened, (56) 35.8% of patients had compliance to treatment and (100) 64% of patients had noncompliance to treatment. Hence, the sample consists of the 100 patients who had noncompliance to the treatment. The data on diagnoses and percentage of patients with noncompliance show that most of the patients (25%) who had noncompliance to treatment were diagnosed with bipolar affective disorders and 22% of sample to noncompliance to treatment were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The study found that a main cause of noncompliance to treatment is to avoid the feelings of being sick. Conclusion: This study found that there is an increased need to conduct public awareness programs and other psychosocial interventions to sensitize the public to regarding mental illness and importance of compliance to treatment.