What Patients with Psychiatric Disorders Expect & Prefer for Medication & SMD

According to a poster that was featured at the 2023 APA Annual Meeting, a recent study investigated the expectations of psychiatric patients’ regarding their medication and medical decision-making preferences. The characteristics of the cohort consisted of 707 outpatients with psychiatric disorders who visited 15 hospitals in South Korea between 2016 and 2018. Of those patients, there were:

·         206 psychotic disorders

·         137 bipolar disorders

·         364 depressive disorders

The survey asked these patients questions based on their demographics, opinions on their medication preferences, who they think the key medical decision-maker should be, and their preferred type of medication. The results were identified and compared using an analysis of variance, or ANOVA, test.

The overall results from the total population consisting of all three patient groups showed the main wish for their medication was that it needed to have high efficacy. It was a close comparison between themselves and a doctor who should be the main medical decision-makers. And finally, it was preferred by all three groups to have either a tablet or a capsule type of drug.

In the depressive patient group, they showed less interest in their medication having high efficacy when compared to the psychotic and bipolar groups. The bipolar group showed more interest in having a doctor as their primary medical decision-maker when compared with the psychotic and depressive groups. And the psychotic group had the highest preference for wanting extended-release drugs.

Based on these three categories of patients, the researchers conclude that personalized medicine based on patient preferences and expectations could improve drug adherence and treatment outcomes.