The knowledge of inpatients with schizophrenia on their medication at hospital discharge

Purpose - To examine the knowledge of schizophrenic inpatients regarding th eir medication. Methods - Fifty male and 50 female patients with schizophrenia were intervi ewed before discharge from the University Psychiatric Hospital in Ljubljana , Slovenia. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected and the Glob al Assessment Scale (GAS) was used. Patients were asked to give the name, p urpose and adverse effects of their prescribed drugs. Results - The mean age of the patients was 40.0 years and they had, on aver age, 6.9 admissions. Their mean GAS score was 58.5, indicating moderately i mpaired everyday functioning. The majority of patients were prescribed two to four psychotropic drugs. Most patients (87.0%) could name the antipsycho tic, 77.0% knew the purpose of their medication and 65.0% knew its side-eff ects. The same was true for the name (90.3%) and purpose (77.0%) of the ant icholinergic, but its side-effects were less well known (28.9%). The name o f the hypnotic was known to 76.5% patients, the purpose to 90.6% and its si de-effects to 34.4%. Only 58% of patients had ever requested information on their medication. The majority of patients received information from packa ge inserts (35%) or from psychiatrists (29%). Most patients (55%) were sati sfied with the information. Conclusions - The information on medication among patients is insufficient. Clinicians should regularly offer and repeat relevant information. Copyrig ht (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.