The Effect of Therapeutic Alliance on Attitudes Toward Psychiatric Medications in Schizophrenia

Purpose/Background The differential influence of therapeutic alliance with different health care professionals on patients' medication adherence has never been examined. Methods/Procedures Ninety-five stable outpatients (91 patients with schizophrenia and 4 patients with schizoaffective disorder) were recruited. Individual, clinical, and medication factors were assessed, along with drug attitude (10-item Drug Attitude Inventory). Comparison on these factors was made between outpatients who identified psychiatrists as the health care professional most involved in their care, as compared with other health care professionals. Findings/Results Older age, longer duration of illness, presence of medical comorbidities, lower levels of internalized stigma, higher levels of insight, higher levels of functioning, lesser severity of depressive symptoms, and positive symptoms were found to be significantly associated with greater levels of drug attitude (small to moderate associations). Only therapeutic alliance had a large correlation with drug attitude (ρ = 0.503, P
Source: Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Original Contributions Source Type: research