Effectiveness of Adherence Therapy for Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia, Schizophreniform Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder
About this trial
This is an interventional health services research trial for Schizophrenia focused on measuring schizophrenia, adherence therapy, medication, randomized controlled trial, cost-effectiveness
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria of the patients include those who:
- are Hong Kong Chinese residents;
- have a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia or its subtypes such as schizophreniform and schizoaffective disorders not more than 3 years;
- have been prescribed oral antipsychotics for at least 1 month;
- are aged 18-65 years;
- have Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score >60 and are judged by the case Community Psychiatric Nurse/psychiatrist as non-adherents; and
- are able to understand Cantonese/Mandarin.
Patients will be excluded if they have:
- only depot/intramuscular injections as regular psychiatric medication;
- co-morbidity of learning disability and organic brain disease, or clinically significant medical diseases;
- participated in adherence therapy; and/or
- visual, language or communication difficulty.
Sites / Locations
- Kwai Chung Hospital
- Castle Peak Hospital
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
No Intervention
Medicaiton adherence therapy
Routine community care
Adherence therapy, consisting of six, 2-hour sessions over 3 months, in three phases: Engaging patients: assessing needs and concerns in medication adherence; Reviewing strengths and barriers and developing coping strategies; and Rationalizing beliefs and concerns and preventing relapse.
Routine Community psychiatric nursing services provided by the Community Psychiatric Nurses in the practice field