Project EASE: a study to test a psychosocial model of epilepsy medication managment

The purpose of this study was to test a psychosocial model of medication self-management among people with epilepsy. This model was based primarily on social cognitive theory and included personal (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, stigma, and depressive symptoms), social (social support), and provider (patient satisfaction and desire for control) variables. Participants for the study were enrolled at research sites in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boston, Massachusetts and completed computer-based assessments that included measures of the study variables listed above. The mean age of the 317 participants was 43.3 years; about 50% were female, and 81%white. Self-efficacy and patient satisfaction explained the most variance in medication management. Social support was related to self-efficacy; stigma to self-efficacy and depressive symptoms; and self-efficacy to outcome expectations and depressive symptoms. Findings reinforce that medication-taking behavior is affected by a complex set of interactions among psychosocial variables.