Religiosity and treatment adherence among out-patients with schizophrenia

This study assessed the association between religiosity and treatment adherence, psychopathology of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in a Nigerian psychiatric hospital. Duke University Religion Index (DUREL), Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8), Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) were used to measure religiosity, medication adherence and psychopathology, respectively. Organisational Religious Activity (ORA) was defined by DUREL’s item 1, Non-Organisational Religious Activity (NORA) by item 2, and Intrinsic Religiosity (IR) by summing items 3, 4 and 5 of the DUREL. PANSS positive subscale was defined by summing PANSS first seven items (P1-P7), PANSS negative by summing next seven items (N1-N7) and general psychopathology dimension by summing last 16 items (G1-G16). Results showed no significant association between all measures of religiosity and medication adherence, and no significant association between ORA and various dimensions of psychopathology. NORA and IR tended to be negatively correlated with PANSS negative psychopathology.