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Published on: January 2, 2017
Long-term decrease in subjective perceived efficacy of immunosuppressive treatment after heart transplantation
Paolo Cherubini1, Rino Rumiati, Maddalena Bigoni
1Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, Milan 20126, Italy. paolo.cherubini@unimib.it
Background:
Mild, long-term non-compliance with immunosuppressive treatment after organ transplantation is common, and can result in early mortality. One possible source of non-compliance is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This study investigates patients perception of the efficacy of their immunosuppressive treatment in a sample of heart transplant patients.
Methods:
A questionnaire was given to 67 heart transplant recipients. The first part of the questionnaire addressed health-related behavior and attitude toward the immunosuppressive medication, using self-report questions. In the second part of the questionnaire, participants evaluated the perceived risk of rejection associated with non-compliant behaviors described in 8 scenarios.
Results:
The data from the self-report questions showed a mild level of behavioral non-compliance, increasing over time, and a mild level of medication non-compliance. One third of the medication non-compliant patients chose the inefficacy or non-necessity of the treatment as a main cause of non-compliance. The second part of the questionnaire showed that subjective perceived efficacy of the immunosuppressive treatment decreased over time.
Conclusions:
Medication non-compliance is fostered by many factors. One of these is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This belief increases over time, and could be the result of a non-clinical selective-attention bias.
