Correlates of compliance with psychoactive prescriptions

Prescription medication misuse among persons with spinal cord injuries

Use of prescription medication, alcohol, and illicit substances, and problems resulting from their use as well as depression and disability acceptance, were reported by 96 persons with long-term spinal cord injuries (SCI). Forty-three percent of the sample used prescription medications with misuse potential, and of these persons, 24% reported misusing one or more medications. Persons who used prescription medications were less accepting of their disability and were more depressed than persons who were not using prescription medications. Additionally, persons reporting problems resulting from prescription medication use were more depressed, and persons reporting problems resulting from nonprescription substance use were less accepting of their disability than were persons not reporting these problems. These results suggest that use of prescription and nonprescription substances by persons with SCI is associated with negative psychological outcomes.

Utility of the health belief model in examining medication compliance among psychiatric outpatients

This study investigates the relationship between health beliefs and medication compliance among a group of psychiatric outpatients who were prescribed antipsychotic drug regimens. The method of study was an interview with 107 outpatients discharged from two Veterans Administration Medical Centers. The health belief model (HBM) served as an organizing framework to explore the relationships among perceptions of illness severity, susceptibility, benefits and barriers of treatment, cues to action, and medication compliance. The results provide a systematic description of health beliefs reported by psychiatric outpatients. Analyses examine the ability of beliefs to predict compliance and affirm the model's theoretical cogency and appropriateness for use with psychiatric outpatients. Regression analysis showed that 20% of the total variance in compliance could be explained when all components of the HBM were examined together. The study supported the concepts that psychiatric outpatients hold identifiable patterns of health beliefs and attitudes and that the health belief framework functions best when utilized as an integrated model to examine compliance.