Compliance and motivational interviewing

Non-compliance, or non-adherence (people not taking their medication) is a big worry for health professionals. This problem is particularly bad among people with schizophrenia where the rates of non-compliance are estimated at between 40-53% depending on the definition used. Motivational interviewing is sometimes used to improve compliance. It attempts to get over people's mixed feelings about changing their behaviour by bringing out their inner motivation to change. It has been used to get people with diabetes and asthma to take their medication, to treat drink and drugs problems and to get people to eat more healthily and take more exercise. Researchers from Marquette University in Wisconsin, U.S. carried out a review of studies into the effectiveness of motivational interviewing at improving compliance among people with schizophrenia. They found only five studies between 1965 and 2006. Two of them showed that motivational interviewing was effective but the other three found that it made no difference. The researchers concluded that the small sample of studies and their methodological limitations made it difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Drymalski, Walter M. and Campbell, Todd C. - A review of motivational interviewing to enhance adherence to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia: evidence and recommendations Journal of Mental Health February 2009, 18(1), 6-15