Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 8;21(1):83. doi: 10.1186/s12888-020-03008-x.
Bipolar disorder is a common psychiatric disorder with a massive psychological and social burden. Research indicates that treatment adherence is not good in these patients. The families' knowledge about the disorder is fundamental for managing their patients' disorder. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the knowledge of the family members of a sample of Iranian patients with bipolar I disorder (BD-I) and to explore the potential reasons for treatment non-adherence.
This study was conducted by qualitative content analysis. In-depth interviews were held and open-coding inductive analysis was performed. A thematic content analysis was used for the qualitative data analysis.
The viewpoints of the family members of the patients were categorized in five themes, including knowledge about the disorder, information about the medications, information about the treatment and the respective role of the family, reasons for pharmacological treatment non-adherence, and strategies applied by families to enhance treatment adherence in the patients. The research findings showed that the family members did not have enough information about the nature of BD-I, which they attributed to their lack of training on the disorder. The families did not know what caused the recurrence of the disorder and did not have sufficient knowledge about its prescribed medications and treatments. Also, most families did not know about the etiology of the disorder.
The lack of knowledge among the family members of patients with BD-I can have a significant impact on relapse and treatment non-adherence. These issues need to be further emphasized in the training of patients' families. The present findings can be used to re-design the guidelines and protocols in a way to improve treatment adherence and avoid the relapse of BD-I symptoms.
双相情感障碍是一种常见的精神疾病，给患者带来了巨大的心理和社会负担。研究表明，这些患者的治疗依从性并不理想。家庭成员对疾病的了解对于管理患者的疾病至关重要。本研究旨在调查伊朗双相 I 型障碍（BD-I）患者样本的家庭成员的知识，并探讨治疗不依从的潜在原因。
本研究采用定性内容分析法进行。进行了深入访谈和开放式编码归纳分析。采用主题内容分析法对定性数据进行分析。
患者家属的观点分为五个主题，包括对疾病的认识、药物信息、治疗及家庭各自的作用、药物治疗不依从的原因以及家庭为提高患者治疗依从性而采用的策略。研究结果表明，家属对 BD-I 的性质缺乏足够的了解，这归因于他们缺乏对该疾病的培训。家属不知道是什么导致了疾病的复发，也不了解疾病的规定药物和治疗方法。此外，大多数家庭不了解疾病的病因。
BD-I 患者家属知识的缺乏会对疾病的复发和治疗不依从产生重大影响。这些问题需要在对患者家属的培训中进一步强调。本研究结果可用于重新设计指南和方案，以提高治疗依从性并避免 BD-I 症状的复发。
