Non-compliance with anti-psychotic depot medication: Users' views on advantages and disadvantages

Abstract

In the present study, 20 compliant and 20 non-compliant, long-term schizophrenia sufferers were interviewed about their experiences of anti-psychotic depot medication. While the results indicate that compliers report more benefits of medication than do non-compliers, the compliers still report many significant negative consequences of medication. In explaining episodes of non-compliance, however, sufferers' perception of their own low susceptibility to relapse appeared more important than was a simple consideration of the negative consequences of medication. The implications for improving compliance with neuroleptic depot medication are discussed in the light of these findings, which are seen to give broad support to the Compliance Therapy intervention and to the Health Belief Model conceptualisation of compliance. It is argued that newer, 'cleaner' antipsychotic medications which have lower rates of extra-pyramidal side-effects may not have major effects on reducing noncompliance.