Compliance with antipsychotic treatment and relapse in schizophrenia

Objective To explore the factors related to the compliance with antipsychotic treatment after 1 year of discharging from hospital and relapse rates among schizophrenia patients in nature status without interventions. Methods The study randomly selected schizophrenic inpatients who were discharged from hospital in arbitrarily 2 months from January 2009 to August 2009 in 4 mental health hospitals in China.The study got the schizophrenic patients′ clinical therapy information after 1 year of discharging by telephone interview. The main detection indexes were compliance rate, relapse rate. Results The survey received 537 effective questionnaires, the compliance rate after 1 year of discharging was 57.9%, and the relapse rate was 40.8%. The relapse rate was significantly different between patients with and without compliance (χ2=34.62, P<0.01, OR=0.31, 95%CI of OR 0.21 to 0.46). The economic level was associated with the compliance rate (χ2=12.43, P<0.05; OR=2.59, 95% CI of OR 1.51 to 4.42). The caregiver situation was associated with the relapse rate (χ2=12.37, P<0.05; OR=0.31，95% CI of OR was from 0.11 to 0.91). Conclusions The compliance rate among the schizophrenia patients in this study is relatively high with similar relapse rate to the studies abroad. The compliance rate and the caregiver situation might be related to the relapse, and economic level might be related to the compliance. Key words: Schizophrenia;  Antipsychotic agents; Patient compliance; Recurrence