The Bipolar Disorder Medication Adherence Battery: validity, reliability, and clinical benchmarks.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Medication adherence is crucial for managing bipolar disorder.
• Existing tools do not fully capture determinants of adherence behavior.
• There is a need for comprehensive assessment to support measurement-based care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Bipolar Disorder Medication Adherence Battery (BD-MAB).
• To assess psychological and contextual determinants of medication adherence in bipolar disorder.
• To support routine, measurement-based care for bipolar disorder patients.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 167 adults with DSM-5 bipolar I disorder.
• The Integrated Behavioral Model guided the mapping of process measures.
• Psychometric properties included internal consistency, construct validity, convergent/discriminant validity, and criterion validity against serum levels.

Main Results:

• The BD-MAB demonstrated acceptable to excellent internal consistency.
• Relations among constructs were theory-consistent, aligning with the Integrated Behavioral Model.
• Criterion validity was supported by concordance with serum medication levels, and convergent validity by association with an established adherence measure.

Conclusions:

• The BD-MAB is a comprehensive and clinically actionable assessment tool for bipolar disorder adherence.
• It provides initial evidence of reliability, validity, and practical change metrics.
• The tool can guide patient-level monitoring in routine care.