Improving medication adherence in individuals with psychiatric illesses

Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are chronic, serious mental health illnesses that can impact an individual’s well-being and result in severe symptoms. Psychiatric medications are a necessary treatment for people with these disorders; yet, many patients do not take their medications as prescribed. Medication nonadherence often results inadequate symptom reduction, poor psychosocial functioning, arrests, substance use, and high rates of relapse and hospitalizations. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to use a psychoeducation program and mobile device application (app), Medisafe, to improve medication adherence from baseline medication adherence in adult psychiatric outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Methodology included improving medication adherence using a quality improvement approach, implementation of a psychoeducation program over a series of four weekly approximate one-hour sessions once a week; and implementation of Medisafe. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) was administered pre-post- and post-intervention. The Mobile Device App Satisfaction Survey (MDASS), and Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI) were administered pre- and post-intervention to measure the study outcome. Also, weekly adherence percentage reports were evaluated on participants’ mobile device apps. Results were that MARS and MDASS results were not statistically significant, while CGI results were statistically significant post-intervention. Implications are that the app can continue to bed used in the mental health population, yet further research is needed.DNPIncludes bibliographical reference