Cited by 245Medication Adherence and ComplianceSchizophrenia research and treatmentMental Health Treatment and Access

A systematic review of factors influencing adherence to antipsychotic medication in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

Sendt, Kyra-Verena, Tracy, Derek Kenneth, Bhattacharyya, Sagnik·2015·Psychiatry Research

Abstract

Adherence to antipsychotics improves outcome in schizophrenia. There is a lack of consensus on which factors most influence adherence behaviour and methodological issues hinder interpretation of existing evidence. A rigorous systematic search designed to identify robustly implicated factors emerging from methodologically rigorous studies narrowed our search to 13 observational studies (total N=6235) relating to adherence, antipsychotics and schizophrenia. Studies varied significantly, with reported adherence rates ranging from 47.2% to 95%. Positive attitude to medication and illness insight were the only factors consistently associated with better adherence, while contradictory results were found for socio-demographic characteristics, symptom severity and side effects. Only distinct aspects of the therapeutic relationship and social support in younger patients were related to good adherence. Antipsychotic type or formulation and neurocognitive functioning did not appear to impact medication adherence. Despite greater methodological rigour in determining studies to include in the present systematic review, it remains difficult to guide clinicians in this vital area and most of the work discussed contained small sample sizes. Future research in this field should therefore prioritise prospective study designs over longer periods and larger samples in naturalistic settings, providing a more appropriate and clinically meaningful framework than widely used cross-sectional designs.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.11.002

Cites

154 of 154 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 156 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sendt, K.-V., Tracy, D. K., & Bhattacharyya, S.
Affiliations
  • King's College London (GB)
  • Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
Corresponding author
Bhattacharyya, Sagnik
Venue
Psychiatry Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-01
Volume
225
Issue
1-2
Pages
14-30
ISSN
0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2068456588
Cited by
245
References
156
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 10
FWCI
2.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Medical Research Council, UK (MR/J012149/1)
  • National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) (NIHR CS-11-001)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Medication Adherence and Compliance
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Keywords
medication adherence, antipsychotic drugs, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, treatment adherence factors, insight into illness, therapeutic relationship, social support, adverse effects, symptom severity, neurocognitive function
MeSH terms
Adult, Attitude to Health, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic Psychology, Antipsychotic Agents, Medication Adherence

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review