Therapeutic adherence is a key issue in patients suffering from schizophrenia. The possibility of psychotic relapse is increased by the omission of medication. Relapses decrease the chance of favourable prognosis of the disorder, and this leads to further hospitalization, which entails increased social expenses. Unfortunately, medication omission, or non-compliance, is very frequent in patients with schizophrenia. Good compliance develops as a result of an interaction among multiple factors affecting the physician, the patient and his/her relatives. The objective was to define principal factors which affect compliance in persons with schizophrenia.

A survey was conducted using a self-rated questionnaire to assess compliance in patients, their relatives and their physicians. Subjects participated from various geographical areas of the country in order to make a sample representative.

909 schizophrenic patients, 73 physicians and 423 relatives participated in this study. Forty-one percent of patients indicated non-compliance by their own decision. The analogous estimate from physicians was 57%. Almost half of the patients (42%) forgot to take the medication or miss it due to other cognitive dysfunctions. This problem affects more patients according to physicians' (49%) and the relatives' (55%) opinion.

Based on our estimates improvement of therapeutic adherence in patients with schizophrenia has high clinical importance, since lack of adherence is directly related to therapeutic failure, and results in an elevated risk for patients' deterioration and life-functioning.