Medication-taking behavior and drug self regulation in people with epilepsy

Objective: To study the most important characteristics of antiepileptic drug (AED) taking behavior in epileptic people, Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 45 consecutively seen patients answered a standardized questionnaire including questions about drug intake behavior. Results: Both genders were equally represented (22M x 23F). The mean age was 30.2 years. No specific characteristic were presented in all patients. The self-reported non-use of the drug at any moment one week before (self-reported non-adherence) was 40.0%. Patients took the drug more than once in most cases (75.0%), and the only precipitating factor of seizures more frequently avoided was alcohol intake (66.7%). Forty-four percent said to be afraid of becoming addicted to the medicine, 61.4% reduced or stopped the medicine just to see what would happen, and 47.7% changed the prescription with the same purpose. There is no relationship among socio-demographic, behavior aspects or treatment characteristics, and self-reported non-adherence. Conclusion: Several patient's aspects de net seem to be strongly correlated with self-reported adherence. Nevertheless, drug self-regulation is probably related to the drug-intake behavior, and it is important for the physician to understand this parallel influence an treatment for a more realistic approach.