BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness, the pharmacological treatment of which comprises primarily the use of antipsychotics. However, non-adherence to their use and its reliable determination present a serious clinical and economic problem. This study aimed to determine therapeutic adherence in outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders by combining short-term electronic monitoring of dispenser opening with the measurement of antipsychotic blood concentrations. METHODS: A total of 55 patients underwent a week-long electronic monitoring of dispenser opening and measurement of blood concentrations before and after monitoring. Patients who correctly opened the dispenser at least in 80% of scheduled time points during the weekly interval and, at the same time, did not show a change in blood concentration of the antipsychotic by more than 30% in any direction, were considered adherent. RESULTS: 69.1% of the patients met the adherence criteria, which was less than that determined by the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10), the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and the Clinician Rating Scale (CRS). 7.3% of the patients took less than 80% of the prescribed doses and a change in blood concentrations of the antipsychotic by more than 30% was detected in 25.4% of the patients. In 70.9% of patients, the detected concentrations were within the recommended therapeutic reference interval. The groups of adherent and non-adherent patients did not differ statistically significantly in the severity of their illness as determined by the Clinical Global Impression (CGI), the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP), and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). CONCLUSIONS: The combined method of evaluating adherence in schizophrenia patients confirmed the results determined by other methods. The benefits of this approach are described in the paper.

Department of Clinical Neurosciences Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Clinical Pharmacology Institute of Laboratory Medicine University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Cybernetics and Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science VSB Technical University Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Psychiatry University Hospital Ostrava 17 listopadu 1790 Ostrava Poruba 708 52 Czech Republic

Institute of Clinical Pharmacology Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

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