Use of traditional and alternative therapies in people who suffer bipolar disorder: impact on compliance.

SARMIENTO L., GIL L., SCÁPOLA M., MARTINO D.J., GIL F., GOMEZ RESTREPO C., STREJILEVICH S.A.

Conferencia; Ninth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder; 2011

Introduction: Although the rates of use of Alternative Therapies(AT) in a!ective disorders could be higher than in otherpathologies, the use of AT in bipolar disorders patients had notbeen properly investigated. We report the results of an anonymoussurvey conducted among people a!ected by BD in two psychiatriccenters in Argentina and Colombia. We investigated the use of ATand its impact on the level of compliance in this population.Methods: We conducted a self administered survey, especiallydesigned for this work. All bipolar outpatients (CGI-Mania andCGI-Depression < 2 points) in treatment were invited toparticipate. Participants completed the survey alone and theymust put it in a ballot box to ensure the anonymity of theirinformation. Adherence and level of satisfaction with medicaltreatment were assessed by self reported measures. To data analysiswe used descriptive statistics and X2and t-tests to comparisons.Results: 200 people completed the survey. The level of adherencewas good for 72%; partial 19%; bad 5,5% and non-adherence for3,5% of the sample. Patients reported their satisfaction withcurrent psychiatric treatment as ‘‘Very Improved’’ 47%;‘‘Improved’’ 42%; little better 6%; without improvement 5%.Thirty six percent reported having used AT prior to their firstcontact with the health system and 37, 3% have used themconcurrently with current psychiatric treatment. 33% reported stilluse AT. 26% reported have received potions prescribed inalternative treatments and 39% reported continue taking it. TheAT use didn’t correlate with gender, age, education, religion andsatisfaction with psychiatric treatment.Use ofAT did notmodified level of adherence. 65%of patients, whohave been useATconcurrently to psychiatric treatment, reported nothaving informed to their psychiatrist about it.Concurrent use ofAMwas rated as useful or very useful by 68%of respondents.Discussion: We found that at least 1 in 3 bipolar patients treated inour centers reported use AT. The use of AT do not predictadherence and satisfaction of current medical treatment.