Medical & Clinical Reviews

Effect of a Telephone Intervention upon Medication Adherence and Related Outcomes in Outpatients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSDs)

Background: Telephone intervention is an innovative option to provide needed problem solving interventions to improve medication adherence in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSDs).

Methods: This randomized controlled trial examined the effect of weekly Telephone Intervention-Problem Solving (TIPS) upon quantitative and qualitative measures of psychiatric and nonpsychiatric medication adherence in 119 stable outpatients with SSDs for nine months.

Findings: Independent samples T-test revealed no significant differences in psychiatric or nonpsychiatric pill count adherence between groups; however 29% of experimental versus 19.6% of controls had serum antipsychotic levels within therapeutic range (NS).

Conclusion: This study extends the literature on adherence in SSDs by describing a clinical sample of stable outpatients for nine months. Our next project will examine the effectiveness of TIPS boosters upon outcomes.

Author(s):

Lora Humphrey Beebe

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