Facilitators and Barriers of Medication Adherence Based on Beliefs of Persons with Bipolar Disorder: A Qualitative Study

Jose Ángel Alcalá, Andrés Fontalba-Navas, Miguel Company-Morales, Samuel L. Romero-Guillena, Teófilo Gutiérrez-Higueras and Luis Gutiérrez-Rojas
Additional contact information
Jose Ángel Alcalá: Clinical Unit of Mental Health, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Andrés Fontalba-Navas: Northern Málaga Integrated Healthcare Area, Antequera Hospital, 29200 Antequera, Spain
Miguel Company-Morales: Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medicine, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain
Samuel L. Romero-Guillena: Clinical Unit of Mental Health, Virgen Macarena University Hospital, 41009 Seville, Spain
Teófilo Gutiérrez-Higueras: Clinical Unit of Mental Health, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Luis Gutiérrez-Rojas: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Tower A, Floor 9, 18071 Granada, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: One of the big challenges in treating individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) is nonadherence to medication. This is the principal factor associated with a worse prognosis or outcome of the disease. This study aimed to explore and analyze the individual perceptions that people with BD have about the positive and negative aspects when taking medication. A descriptive and interpretative study was carried out using the qualitative research paradigm with the use of the analytical technique of discourse analysis, extracting the data through the completion of focus groups. Participants’ speech was digitally audio-recorded in digital format. In order to complete the codification of the participants’ speech content, we relied on the qualitative data analysis (using the QRS NVivo 10 computer software). Thirty-six participants diagnosed with bipolar disorder took part in our study. In the participants’ speech concerning the main barriers to pharmacological treatment, three key topics were identified. Perceived facilitators were summarized in four factors. The main facilitators regarding the use of pharmacological treatment in individuals with BD were the ones related with the perceived need for treatment in the acute phase, the recognition of the illness, the shared clinical decision, and the causal biological attribution in the chronic phase. In terms of perceived barriers, social control was identified in both phases, adverse effects in the acute phase, and the absence of effective treatment in the chronic state.

Keywords: bipolar disorder; acceptability; adherence; core beliefs; group intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7633/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7633/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7633-:d:845011

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().