for eMaxHealthAccording to National Adherence Initiative in Schizophrenia survey, presented at the 160th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, a new screening tool can help clinicians identify patients with schizophrenia who are at risk of non-adherence with medication. Non-adherence is when patients fail to take their medication as prescribed by their physician.
Using the new tool, clinicians surveyed more than 13,000 patients and found that poor insight, previous failure to take medication and previous discontinuation of medication are the most common reasons for failing to take medication prescribed for schizophrenia in approximately two out of three patients.
"It is well known that many patients with schizophrenia fail to take oral antipsychotics as prescribed," said John M Kane, Lead Investigator and Director, NIMH Intervention Research Center in Schizophrenia, Hillside Hospital, New York. "It is important for physicians to have a brief, simple tool to be able to identify these patients in order to consider interventions or other options, such as long-acting injectable forms of antipsychotics, that can help improve adherence by helping the treatment team know when patients are not taking their medication."
Previous studies have shown that less than half of patients with schizophrenia prescribed oral antipsychotics take their medication on a regular basis.
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