Effectiveness of educative intervention on drug compliance for patients with schizophrenia

Background: The maintenance of antipsychotic treatment has been shown to play a vital role in relapse prevention and improving the quality of life of individual with schizophrenia. Noncompliance is a major cause of schizophrenia relapses. Aim of the study was to find the effectiveness of educative intervention on drug compliance for patients with schizophrenia. Material and methods: A quasi experimental research design was used for this study. Population consists of entire patients with schizophrenia admitted with more than one year of illness duration. Total 100 samples were assigned into two groups with 50 in control and 50 in experimental group. A sociodemographic data sheet and a tool on drug compliance consisting of 25 items were used for the study. The tool measures patients’ perception and behaviour related to compliance. Educative intervention on drug compliance focused on educative sessions on knowledge about the illness, need of medication, side effect of medication and their management and attitude towards medication and illness. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in pre and post test scores in both the control and experimental group indicating some degree of improvement on routine care without added intervention. But, a statistically significant difference in post test mean scores on drug compliance between the control and experimental group indicated effectiveness of educative intervention for patients with schizophrenia. The educative intervention was helpful in bringing a change towards perception and behaviour related to taking medicine. Conclusion: The findings concluded that educative intervention on drug compliance is useful for better outcome in compliance of schizophrenic patients.