Mediating Roles of Adherence Attitude and Patient Education on Antidepressant Use in Patients With Depression

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the roles of adherence attitude to antidepressants and patient education as mediators in mediating patients' attitudes toward antidepressant use. DESIGN AND METHODS: A sample of 201 outpatients, 50 years of age or older, with major depressive disorder, completed a drug use questionnaire, attitudes toward and patient education about antidepressants questionnaire, and Adherence Attitude Inventory. FINDINGS: Attitudes toward antidepressants were positively associated to antidepressant use, an association explained by the mediating variable, patient education about antidepressants. Adherence attitudes to antidepressants were a mediator that accounted to a significant degree for the causal relationship between attitudes toward antidepressants and antidepressant use. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Adequate patient education and an understanding of patients' adherence attitude to antidepressant use are needed in nursing practice to reduce patients' uncertainty about treatment and increase successful treatment.