Correlations of attitudes toward antipsychotic drugs with insight and objective psychopathology in schizophrenia

Abstract 

Objective

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationships between attitudes toward antipsychotics, insight, and other clinical variables in stable schizophrenia.

Methods

Fifty Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision–(DSM-IV-TR)–diagnosed schizophrenic outpatients were evaluated through a psychiatric assessment. Drug attitudes were measured using the Drug Attitude Inventory and insight using the Scale for the Assessment of Unawareness of Mental Disorder. Differences between patients taking first- or second-generation antipsychotics were investigated.

Results

Lack of insight, more severe scores on the positive and general psychopathology subscales of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and later age at onset of schizophrenia correlated with worse global medication attitude. The multiple regression analysis revealed that unawareness of the need of treatment predicted poorer drug global attitude (R² = 0.312). Patients taking second-generation antipsychotics showed lower negative attitudes and better global drug attitudes than patients treated with neuroleptics.

Conclusion

The impact of the awareness of the need for treatment on global medication attitude needs to be a main focus of interventions targeting compliance.