Non-Compliance After First Episode of Manic or Mixed Mood State: A 17-Months Follow-up

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the non-compliance rate in patients with Bipolar I disorder (BID).

Methods: The patients admitted to Iran Psychiatric Hospital who were diagnosed as a case of the first episode mania of bipolar I disorder (DSM-IV-TR) by 2 psychiatrists followed by one of them in a longitudinal, prospective and naturalistic study. In the follow-up early non-compliance/irregular drugs use, drug discontinuation and good compliance (GC) in the patients were registered in addition to the recurrences of mood episodes. The term poor compliance (PC) was used for early non-compliance/irregular drugs use and drug discontinuation.

Results: The patients were 11 males and 11 females aged 19.6 to 59 (28.4±10.4). The study lasted 32.5 months and the subjects were followed between 8 to 24 months (17±5.3). Poor compliance (PC) was observed in 8 subjects (38.1%) with male to female ratio of 1.7. Six subjects in PC group (75%) and 3 subjects (23.1%) in GC group had a recurrence of mood episode. Eight subjects with poor compliance included 3 with noncompliance/irregular use and 5 with drug discontinuation

Conclusion: The poor compliance rate in BID cases admitted to this center is close to the previous studies. Repetition of the study with a larger sample size and in multi-center setting is proposed.