Abstract
Objective Antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy remains the primary form of treatment for epilepsy, noncompliance to which can result in breakthrough seizure, emergency department visits, fractures, head injuries, and increased mortality. Various tools like self-report measures, pill-counts, medication refills, and frequency of seizures can assess compliance with varying extent. Thus, assessment of compliance with AEDs is crucial to be studied. Materials and Methods Compliance was assessed using pill-count and Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS) during home visits. A pill-count (pills dispensedpills remaining)/(pills to be consumed between two visits) value of 0.85 to 1.15 was recorded as appropriate compliance. Underdose (<0.85) and overdose (>1.15) was labeled as noncompliance. Score of 1 was given to each positive answer in MMAS. Score of 1 was labeled as noncompliance. Statistical analysis: Relationship of demographic factors between compliant and noncompliant patients was analyzed using Chi-square test (SPSS version 21.0, IBM). Rest of the data was analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics using Microsoft Excel. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Out of 105 patients, 54 patients were noncompliant with both pill-count and MMAS. 10 patients were noncompliant with pill-count only, while 10 were noncompliant with MMAS. Conclusion Both tools complement each other when used in combination, as use of a single tool was not able to completely detect compliance.
Copyright
Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Derivative-Non Commercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit.
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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
