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Background: Poor adherence to treatment is one of the main challenges to symptom control and preventing recurrence in bipolar disorder (BD). Numerous studies have established an association between patients' poor adherence and an increased risk of recurrence, relapse of the symptoms and admission to hospital. Aim: To study the socio-demographic and clinical factors associated with medication nonadherence in patients with BD who were admitted to the hospital. Setting: The study was conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University. Methods: A 1-year longitudinal prospective study of 110 patients, aged 18-60 years, with BD-I. Young Mania Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression, Global Assessment of Functioning, Sheehan Disability Scale and Insight and Treatment Attitude Questionnaire were applied before and 6 months after discharge. Adherence was measured using the Morisky 8-Item Medication Adherence Scale. Sociodemographic data and level of functioning were studied in relation to adherence. Results: Higher adherence was noticed in female, married and older patients and those with a higher level of education. However, low adherence was more common in male, nonmarried and less educated patients. Follow-up after 6 months revealed that the high adherence group scored the lowest in terms of disability. Meanwhile, the low adherence group scored the highest scores in disability. Conclusion: Several socio-demographic and clinical variables were found to be associated with a low adherence rate to the prescribed medication in patients with BD-I. Age and impaired insight were found to be significant predictive factors for non-adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with major mental illness have an increased risk of victimization. Nevertheless, this topic was not thoroughly studied in Egyptian patients with major mental illness. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to investigate the rates of victimization and understand its profile, psycho-demographic and clinical correlates among a sample of Egyptian patients with major mental illness. Participants and Methods: A total of 300 patients (100 patients with schizophrenia, 100 with bipolar and 100 with major depression) were recruited from the inpatient wards and outpatient clinics at Ain Shams University. They were subjected to a demographic questionnaire, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and a Victimization Questionnaire (VQ). Results: In our study population, 130 (43.3%) of patients were victimized, of them 52 (40%) were diagnosed with major depressive disorder, 48 (36.9%) with bipolar disorder and 30 (23.1%) with schizophrenia. Victimization was more in female, married, unemployed individuals and those living in rural areas. Patients exposed to domestic violence or abuse during childhood had higher rates of victimization. All victimized patients were subjected to emotional victimization, 64.6% were physically victimized and 53.8% were subjected to miscellaneous types of victimization. Patients were victimized mainly by acquaintance followed by family members. The majority of patients did not report their victimization and considered it as a personal issue or not important enough to be reported. Conclusion: Patients with major mental illness are susceptible to significant victimization. Clinicians should explore possible history of abuse or victimization in their patients, empower and support the victimized ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]