The relationship of psychological reactance, health locus of control and sense of self-efficacy with adherence to treatment in psychiatric outpatients with depression

BACKGROUND Although non-adherence to antidepressant medications is a significant barrier to the successful treatment of depression in clinical practice, few potentially modifiable predictors of poor adherence to antidepressant treatment are known. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of psychological reactance, health locus of control and the sense of self-efficacy on adherence to treatment regimen among psychiatric outpatients with depression. METHODS One hundred and forty-five consecutive psychiatric outpatients suffering from depressive disorders were invited to participate in a cross-sectional study and 119 accepted. Patients completed a series of self-reported questionnaires assessing psychological reactance, health locus of control, self-efficacy, and adherence to prescribed medication in addition to socio-demographic and clinical variables. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine which factors better correlate to treatment adherence. RESULTS Age was found to be the best correlate of adherence to prescribed treatment. As regards psychological dimension studied, medication adherence was negatively associated with both cognitive and affective psychological reactance; patients with higher psychological reactance were more likely to be noncompliant than patients showing a low level of psychological reactance. Regarding health locus of control, only the external dimension of doctor-attributed health locus of control was positively associated with medications adherence. No effect on adherence was observed for the self-efficacy scale. CONCLUSIONS Psychological reactance is an important correlate of adherence to treatment in patients with depressive disorders and this needs to be considered when giving clinical advice in order to avoid inducing reactance and thus non-adherence to prescribed treatments. Mental health professionals need to learn about communication techniques and counseling skills that enable them to deal with the psychological reactance of their patients.