Medication Related Problems and Predisposing Factors Among Adult Psychiatric Patients on Antipsychotic Drugs at Mathari Teaching and Referral Hospital

Abstract

Background: Psychiatric patients often take multiple medications making them more predisposed to medication related problems, but the extent to this problem has not been widely studied especially in Kenya. Objective: The aim of study was to characterize the types of medication related problems and their predictor factors among adult psychiatric patients on antipsychotic medication in Mathari Hospital. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital. Simple random sampling was used to select 122 adult patients with psychiatric disorders. Using predesigned questionnaires, the patient's information, such as social demographics, laboratory findings, and treatment were collected. Patient interviews were used to assess any issues with the prescribed pharmaceutical therapy. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel 2016 and analyzed using STATA version 15.0. Descriptive, binary and multivariable logistic analyses was employed to describe the population at a 95% confidence interval and determine the strength of association between the socio-demographic factors, drug related factors, patient factors and the selected medication related problems. Results: Among the 122 participants, females were the majority (52.5%), and the median age was 31 [26-41] years, with a range of 18 – 68 years. The prevalence of medication related problem was 54.9%. The most common medication related problem category was the need for additional drug therapy (47.3%), followed by adverse drug event (30.9%) and different drug needed (18.2%). Multivariate logistic analysis found the odds of experiencing medication-related problems for those with "College/University" education were 0.007 times (or 99.3% lower) than the odds for those with "Secondary & below" education (aOR=0.007, 95%CI: 0.00-0.0052, p=0.026). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of medication related problems occasioned by need for additional drugs and low level of academic achievement among adult psychiatric patients. Recommendation: A comprehensive system review to be done for every patient because the need for additional therapy was a typical MRP, indicating that some of the patient's problems were not being addressed. Similar research with a larger sample size, prospective in nature and of a longer duration in several centers is recommended. This will give findings on the incidence rather than prevalence of the medication related problems.