Adherence to Antiepileptic Therapy in Adults

CONTEXT: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder affecting 70 million worldwide. The high incidence of relapse can be attributed to nonadherence, thus increasing the incidence of refractory epilepsy to 10%–20%. AIMS: This study was planned to determine rate of adherence and factors affecting adherence using Antiepileptic Adherence Questionnaire and Baseline Adherence Questionnaire. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was carried out at a rural hospital from May to September 2015. Patients of either gender aged 18–60 years, diagnosed with epilepsy were interviewed after they consented. Patient details, responses to questionnaires were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Among the participants, 67.8% were males and 32.2% were females with the mean age of 38.3 ± 13.9 years. The response rate was 75% (90/120). The majority were literate (64.4%) and employed (58.9%). The duration of disease was <5 years in most individuals; 50% were highly, 21.1% moderately, and 28.9% nonadherent to treatment. Among the highly adherent, 66.7% never skipped medications because they had knowledge of the disease and treatment. More than 97% were satisfied with the social support, and 89% expressed that their family and friends reminded them to take medications. Patients who were nonadherent to treatment attributed it to the lack of knowledge of the disease (57%) and treatment (96%). Reasons for nonadherence were patients assumed drug was harmful, felt cured of the disease, and wanted to avoid side effects. CONCLUSION: Nearly, 70% expressed the lack of satisfactory support from the social circle. We observed that nearly seventy percent epileptic patients were moderate-highly adherent. Nonadherence was attributed to patient feeling cured of disease and assuming medications to be harmful. Counseling of patients will help in adherence to treatment.