Drug compliance amongst psychiatric day hospital attenders

Drug compliance was assessed amongst all 91 patients attending a psychogeriatric day hospital during July 1988. Of the 86 patients taking medication, the 57 functionally and 29 organically ill patients were interviewed at home, the latter with their carers. A disparity in results was shown when compliance was measured by two different means: by dose indices and by tablet counts. Functionally ill patients had a better dose compliance but there was no difference between the groups when assessed for tablet-count compliance. The unreliability of using a single tablet count as a measure of compliance is discussed. Little correlation was shown between reduced compliance and increased numbers of medications. Assessment of patients' comprehension of the purpose of their medications revealed that those most poorly understood were lithium and carbamazepine, the best understood were analgesics and hypnotics. Non-prescribed medication constituted only 2% of the total medications being taken.