Factors related to treatment compliance in bipolar disorder

Medication non-adherence is a major problem in patients with bipolar disorder as it is associated to poor clinical outcomes with frequent relapses and consequently poor quality of life. The reasons that patients are non adherent with medication are not well understood by clinicians who often consider it as related to the illness itself.

To assess sociodemographic, clinical and therapeutic factors related to medication compliance in bipolar disorder.

A cross-sectional study was conducted at the department of psychiatry of FarhatHached Hospital of Sousse. We included 50 outpatients with bipolar disorder type I or II according to the criteria of the DSM-IV TR. The sociodemographic, clinical and therapeutic data were collected and adherence was evaluated with the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS) of Thompson.

The mean age of our patients was of 31.9 years. The most frequent diagnosis was the bipolar disorder type I (60 %). Most of the participants were single (n=30; 60%), unemployed and living with their families. Factors associated to medication non-adherence were: young age, addiction, complexity and adverse effects of medications, lack of information about the disease and utility of treatments, low income and type I of bipolar disorder.

Improving medication compliance strategies in bipolar patients must take into account psycho education of patients about their disease and simplification of prescriptions that must be also well tolerated mainly in young subjects, having addictive behaviors and low income.