The Role of Lifestyle on Adherence to Treatment in a Sample of Patients with Unipolar and Bipolar Depression

Abstract

Introduction: Poor adherence to treatment is currently stated to be one of the causes of depression relapse and recurrence. The aim of the present study is to assess potential differences in terms of clinical and lifestyle features related to adherence to treatment in a sample of patients with unipolar and bipolar depression. Methods: One hundred and eight patients with a diagnosis of unipolar or bipolar depressive episode were recruited from January 2021 to October 2022. Adherence to psychopharmacological treatment was assessed using the clinician rating scale. Descriptive and association analyses were performed to compare subgroups based on adherence to treatment. Results: Lower levels of adherence to treatment were associated with fewer years of education, work impairment, manic prevalent polarity lifetime, and greater comorbidity with alcohol and drug abuse. The majority of patients with positive adherence did not report any hospitalization and involuntary commitment lifetime. Conclusions: Patients with a positive treatment adherence showed significant differences in terms of lifestyle and clinical features compared to non-adherent patients. Our results may help to identify patients more likely to have poor medication adherence, which seem to lead to a worse disease course and quality of life.