The Impact of Using Digital Health Interventions and Psychoeducation on Medication Adherence Among Patients with Schizophrenia: A Scoping Review

BackgroundSchizophrenia is a significant global mental health concern. It is associated with substantial disability and psychosis and can have an impact on all aspects of life. Medication is an appropriate and effective treatment; thus, improving adherence remains a main concern among patients with schizophrenia in clinical practice. Several approaches, such as digital health interventions (DHI) and psychoeducational approaches, may enhance medication adherence. Despite several efforts to create and improve these approaches, their impact remains unclear.ObjectiveConduct a scoping review to provide an overview of how digital health interventions and psychoeducation impact the medication adherence of individuals with schizophrenia.MethodUsing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, we screened 435 studies published between 2019 and 2024 from the databases including Springer Link, MEDLINE, Pro-Quest Central, CINAHL Plus, and Google Scholar. All articles were filtered using inclusion criteria to eliminate redundant, irrelevant, and unnecessary content.ResultsA total of 14 articles that addressed DHI and psychoeducational interventions for medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia were found to meet the inclusion criteria. Four themes emerged: psychoeducation, mobile applications, telephone interventions, and digital medical systems. DHI and psychoeducation effectively improved medication adherence, with mobile applications being the most popular and successful.ConclusionThe findings of this review should be used by healthcare professionals to direct their clinical practice. Interventions in digital health can provide a wealth of creative ideas for integrating technical advancement with psychotherapies.