Adherence to prescribed treatment by adolescent outpatients with mental disorders at a regionalpsychiatric hospital

Özet

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate adherence to treatment by adolescents with mental disorders who applied to the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic of a regional psychiatric hospital.Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 142 adolescents who were followed while attending the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic of a regional psychiatric hospital for twelve months be-tween November 2018 and November 2019. They had been using psychotropic medications for at least three months. In this study, an Information Form with 31 open- and closed-ended questions was used to collect the data. Frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to evaluate the data.Results: In this study, 55.6% of the adolescents who participated were female, and the mean age was 14.51±1.98 years. 93.7% of adolescents continued their education and 70.4% lived in a nuclear family structure. Adolescents were followed up with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and the Anxiety, Mood, and Psychotic Disorders, re-spectively. Among them, 50.7% use stimulants, 50.7% use antidepressants, and antipsychotic medications. Adolescents used their medications regularly, most (50.7%) did not experience any side effects; those who experienced side effects more often used ineffective coping methods. 37.3% had no difficulty in remembering to take their medications and 24.6% did not forget to take them. Adolescents who found that using regular medication is important often stated that they did not give up whether they felt good or bad; they frequently used support and reminder systems (such as alarms or notes) to get their medications regularly. 61.3% of the adolescents stated that they always came to their appoint-ments regularly; however, some stated that they could often interrupt their appointments in order not to miss classes.Conclusion: It is recommended that mental health and psychiatric nurses perform experimental studies in different groups of adolescents with mental disorders, using a larger sample in which interventions increase the adherence with treatment, determine the factors affecting the adherence to treatment, and develop standard measurement tools.