Community management: A model that effectively reduces rate of medication discontinuation in patients with schizophrenia

IntroductionPatients with schizophrenia often experience high rates of medication interruptions, which have a range of serious consequences. Previous studies have shown that community management may help to address this situation. ObjectiveTo investigate treatment discontinuation in patients with schizophrenia under community management in China and analyze its associated factors. MethodsThe patients were assessed using a self-report questionnaire. The survey content included the following: treatment discontinuation, age, sex, education, residence, marital status, monthly family income, payment method for medication, employment, course of current disease, state of disease, insight, knowledge about drugs, types of drugs received, adverse effects of treatment, accepted follow-up, and family support. ResultsA total of 1531 patients with schizophrenia were included. Among them, 63 patients (4.1%) had discontinued medication at some point, while 1468 (95.9%) patients maintained treatment. The two groups showed statistically significant differences in payment methods for medication, state of disease, insight, knowledge about drugs, side effects of drugs, type of drugs received, and status of follow-up visits (P <0.05). The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the period of disease onset, lack of insight, obvious side-effects of drugs, and lack of follow-up were risk factors for patients to discontinue medication (P <0.05). ConclusionPatients with schizophrenia under community management had a low rate of treatment discontinuation. The state of the disease, insight, side-effects of drugs, and status of follow-up visits are strongly related to medication interruption.