Abstract
Introduction: Medication nonadherence is highly prevalent in patients with bipolar disorders and often results in worsening disease prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group psychoeducation on medication adherence in female patients with bipolar mood disorder type I. Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted on 76 patients with bipolar mood disorder admitted in female psychiatric wards of Razi teaching hospital, Tabriz, Iran. The participants were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Patients in experimental group received 10 continuous 90 minutes sessions of psychoeducation, two times a week. Medication adherence was measured using the medicine check list and medication adherence rating scale (MARS) before and after intervention. Data analysis was performed with SPSS ver.13. Results: There was no significant difference between two groups regarding medication adherence before the intervention. After the study intervention, the mean scores of medication adherence check list and medication adherence rating scale in the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion: Since group psychoeducation was effective in improving patients' medication adherence, it could be recommended for psychiatric nurses to apply this intervention in the clinical setting.
Highlights
Medication nonadherence is highly prevalent in patients with bipolar disorders and often results in worsening disease prognosis
This study aimed to investigate the effect of group psychoeducation program on medication adherence of female patients with bipolar disorder to remedy the current gap
In comparison with the control group, medication adherence rating scale (MARS) score of post-test was significantly higher in experimental group (P
Summary
Medication nonadherence is highly prevalent in patients with bipolar disorders and often results in worsening disease prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group psychoeducation on medication adherence in female patients with bipolar mood disorder type I. The mean scores of medication adherence check list and medication adherence rating scale in the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. According to WHO report in 2009, BMD is the sixth cause of disability among people aged 14-55.2 The lifetime prevalence of bipolar mood disorder is 1%. Prognosis of this disorder is not so good and suicide attempts occur in 25-50% of patients.[3]. The consequences of nonadherence to medication can be destructive for patients and their families in terms of personal suffering, readmission, prolonged hospital stays, and reduced quality of life, as well as, for society in general, due to loss of income and direct costs of healthcare.[12,13]
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