A Comparative Study of Antipsychotic Medication Taking in People with Schizophrenia

Medication adherence is problematic in all chronic illnesses, none more so than in\ud individuals with schizophrenia. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the factors that\ud impacted upon antipsychotic medication taking in people with schizophrenia living in regional–rural\ud and metropolitan Victoria, Australia, and to assess if differences existed between these two groups of\ud participants in the factors that affected medication taking. The Factors Influencing Neuroleptic\ud Medication Taking Scale was used with a non-probability survey sample of 81 people with schizophrenia.\ud Ethics approval was given by university and hospital ethics committees. The results showed,\ud overall, that there were no significant differences between the sets of participants in several demographic\ud characteristics, insight, stigma, substance abuse, types of antipsychotic medications, significant\ud others’ support, and access to case managers and general practitioners. There were statistically\ud significant differences between the two groups concerning living circumstances, involvement in\ud religious/spiritual activities, perceived impact of medication side-effects, and access to psychiatrists.\ud However, there were no statistically significant relationships between these factors and medication\ud omission. The implications of the findings for consumers, mental health nurse case managers, families,\ud mental health service provision, and further research, are considered