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Pharmacopsychiatry 2021; 54(02): 75-80
DOI: 10.1055/a-1257-0813
Original Paper

Association between Adherence with an Atypical Antipsychotic and with Other Psychiatric Drugs in Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Michael Bauer 
1   Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Medical Faculty, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
,
Tasha Glenn
2   ChronoRecord Association, Fullerton, CA, USA
,
Martin Alda
3   Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
,
Paul Grof
4   Mood Disorders Center of Ottawa, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
,
Scott Monteith
5   Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Traverse City Campus, Traverse City, MI, USA
,
Natalie Rasgon
6   Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
,
Emanuel Severus
1   Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Medical Faculty, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
,
Peter C. Whybrow
7   Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Abstract

Background Using U.S. pharmacy and medical claims, medication adherence patterns of patients with serious mental illness suggest that adherence to atypical antipsychotics may be related to adherence to other prescription drugs. This study investigated whether adherence to an atypical antipsychotic was related to adherence to other prescribed psychiatric drugs using self-reported data from patients with bipolar disorder.

Methods Daily self-reported medication data were available from 123 patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder receiving treatment as usual who took at least 1 atypical antipsychotic over a 12-week period. Patients took a mean of 4.0±1.7 psychiatric drugs including the antipsychotic. The adherence rate for the atypical antipsychotic was compared to that for other psychiatric drugs to determine if the adherence rate for the atypical antipsychotic differed from that of the other psychiatric drug by at least ±10%.

Results Of the 123 patients, 58 (47.2%) had an adherence rate for the atypical antipsychotic that differed from the adherence rate for at least 1 other psychiatric drug by at least±10%, and 65 (52.8%) patients had no difference in adherence rates. The patients with a difference took a larger total number of psychiatric drugs (p<0.001), had a larger daily pill burden (p=0.020) and a lower adherence rate with the atypical antipsychotic (p=0.007), and were more likely to take an antianxiety drug (p<0.001).

Conclusion Adherence with an atypical antipsychotic was not useful for estimating adherence to other psychiatric drugs in about half of the patients with bipolar disorder.

Key words

Bipolar disorder - adherence - atypical antipsychotics


Publication History

Received: 16 July 2020
Received: 31 August 2020

Accepted: 31 August 2020

Article published online:
17 November 2020

© 2020. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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