Treatment adherence has a vital role in the patient's health outcome as poor adherence rates can reduce, even diminish, the effectiveness of the treatment as well as lead to a waste of the health care system's valuable resources. Previous research has shown that perceptions of treatment strongly affect adherence in psychiatric patients.

To investigate how the perceptions of treatment affect adherence during hospitalization in psychiatric patients.

Fifty psychiatric patients participated in this research, 21 (42%) males and 29 (58%) females. Out of them, 25 (50%) had been diagnosed with depression, 15 (30%) with psychosis, 6 (12%) with psychosis and depressive symptomatology and 4 (8%) with bipolar disorder.

The findings showed a significant effect of psychotherapy on treatment adherence (χ2 = 4.915, P = 0.027), with 7 out of 11 patients who undertook psychotherapy reporting good adherence rates compared to 12 out of 39 patients who did not. Gender had a significant effect on adherence (χ2 = 5.96, P = 0.05), with females reporting better adherence compared to males. Perception of treatment did not correlate significantly with adherence (χ2 = 0.439, P > 0.05) and neither did education (χ2 = 2.22, P > 0.05). Also, neither age (F(2,47) = 1.535, P > 0.05) nor hospitalization time (F(2,47) = 1.131, P > 0.05) correlated significantly with adherence to treatment.

Even though there was no significant correlation between perceptions of treatment and adherence, psychotherapy seems to improve adherence to therapy during hospitalization and is also correlated with positive perceptions of treatment, something which will be valuable for the patient even after the hospitalization.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.