2014 年 8 巻 1-2 号 p. 9-15
The aim of this study was to clarify the risk factors for interruption of psychiatric treatment among mentally ill people living in the community. Three hundred seventy-two mentally ill people who received psychiatric consultation services that supported healthcare professionals who experienced difficulties in carrying out their casework on community people were analyzed. We performed logistic regression analysis to examine the relationship between a mentally ill person’s interruption of psychiatric treatment and parameters. Among 199 mentally ill people in whom usable data could be obtained, 64 people (32.2%) had no history of interruption of psychiatric treatment, while 135 (67.8%) interrupted psychiatric treatment.
The logistic regression analysis revealed that receiving welfare benefit (Odds Ratio=3.07, 95%CI=1.40−6.72) and refusing to take medicine (Odds Ratio=7.99, 95% CI=3.62−17.63) were significantly associated with interruption of psychiatric treatment among the mentally disabled. To our knowledge, this is the first study that systematically investigated the percentage of mentally ill patients living in a Japanese community with treatment interruption. Our findings indicated the necessity of developing a community health care system to prevent interruption of psychiatric treatment in mentally ill patients. Furthermore, health care professionals should share information on patients who refuse to take medicine and try to use the information on patients’ refusal to take medicine for avoiding an untreated period in mentally ill people.
