Psychotropic medication non-adherence among patients with severe mental disorder attending at Bahir Dar Felege Hiwote Referral hospital, north west Ethiopia, 2017

OBJECTIVE: Medication non-adherence is a major public health problem that has been called an “invisible epidemic”. Globally, non-adherence rates among patients with severe mental illness ranged between 30 and 65%. It greatly increases the risk of illness exacerbation and hospitalizations. However, there is a paucity of studies examining treatment non-adherence and its associated factors among patients with severe mental disorder. Therefore, this study was aimed at determining the magnitude of medication non-adherence and associated factors among patients with severe mental disorder. RESULTS: A total of 409 study subjects were participated making a response rate of 92%. The overall prevalence of medication non-adherence was found to be 55.2% (95%, CI; 49.9%, 60.2%). Study participants whose age group of (25–34) [AOR = 3.04 (95% CI 1.27, 7.29)], study subjects taking their medication twice per day [AOR = 4.60 (95% CI 2.25, 9.43)], no social support [AOR = 4.4 (95% CI 1.78, 11.08)] and no insight for their treatment [AOR = 5.88 (CI 2.08, 16.59)] were significantly associated with medication non-adherence. The result of this study showed that non-adherence among patients with severe mental disorder was found to be high. Psychiatry health care providers have to consider the frequency of medication become once per day, continual awareness creation among professionals and engaging significant others for good social support system and continual treatment alliance is strongly commended for adherence. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4126-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.