ABSTRACT
Abstraact Objective: A four-week longitudinal study was conducted to assess the relationship between insight, psychopathology and treatment compliance in schizophrenia. METHOD: The study was conducted using Insight and Treatment Attitude Questionnaire (ITAQ), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS). The sample comprised 50 patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to research criteria of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), with a mean duration of illness of 5.32 years. RESULTS: Substantial psychopathology was observed at intake and it improved significantly at the end of four weeks. Similar changes were observed in the score of insight and of compliance over four weeks. The insight and the compliance were positively correlated to each other at the beginning and at the end of four weeks. Both of these were negatively correlated with psychopathology scores on both occasions. CONCLUSION: Insight and psychopathology remain important determinants of treatment compliance in schizophrenia over short term and long term follow up.