Effectiveness of specific intervention on treatment adherence of persons with mental illness: A pilot study.

CONTEXT

Treatment nonadherence is one of the major obstacles in recovery even with the availability of a broad range of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for persons with mental illnesses.

AIMS

The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions in improvement of treatment adherence of persons with mental illnesses.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

A quasi-experimental study was conducted at a tertiary mental health care setting in North-east India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Total 30 numbers of patients were selected randomly for the study. Treatment adherence was assessed using the Medication Adherence Rating Scale and a structured Treatment Adherence Checklist. Data were collected before and 1-month after the specific interventions to the patients and their family members.

RESULTS

Result showed a significant improvement in the treatment adherence as verbalized by the patient (paired t = 3.973, P = 0.00, df = 29) as well as reported by the family members (paired t = 2.94, P = 0.00, df = 29) following the specific intervention.

CONCLUSION

The study result suggested that specific intervention may be used for a better outcome of treatment for mental illnesses. The findings might be generalized following implementation of the intervention to a larger sample.