Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of mental status of caregiver on treatment adherence in bipolar disorder.
Methods: 38 bipolar outpatient and their caregiver (n= 38) were recruited from consecutive admissions and evaluated during four mounths. The caregivers depression and anxiety evaluation were done with HDRS and HARS on mounth 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Results: Female gender, age, educational status, socioeconomic status and number of hospitalisation were related with treatment adherence (p< 0.001; r= 0.821, p= 0.012; r= 0.654, p= 0.018; r= 0.663, p= 0.007; r= 0.430, p= 0.022). Duration of illness was more longer in patients with nonadherence (p= 0.016).
The percentage of caregivers were mother 24%, father 5.3%, sibling 5.3%, children 57.8% and wife 10.6%. HDRS and HARS scores were more higher in patients with nonadherence (p= 0.022 and p= 0.027). Adherence to controls correlated with HDRS scores and pharmacological adherence correlated with HARS of caregivers (r= 0.649, p= 0.013 ve r= 0.467, p= 0.014).
Conclusion: Depressive and anxious caregiver seems to cause more nonadherence of the treatment.