Non-compliance to psychotropic medication in eastern India: Clients' perspective. Part II

Abstract

Studies of compliance have been criticised for being physician based and adopting the moral stance that not following medical regimens is deviant. It is ironic that the client's attitude to medication and their reasons for non-compliance remain under-investigated, not least because of the current emphasis on client empowerment whilst attitude to medication can differentiate compliers from non-compliers. This part of the study reports the clients' reasons for not taking their medication. Intolerable sideeffects, cost, psychotic explanations and forgetfulness were the most frequent responses provided by the clients as reasons for not taking their medication. The client's previously held attitude to medication is put forward as an explanation for these findings and therapeutic implications are discussed.