The Effect of Islamic-Based Insight Enhancement Program (IBIEP) on Medication Adherence of Persons with Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Aim: This pilot study examined the effect of Islamic-based insight enhancement program (IBIEP) on medication adherence of persons with schizophrenia. Background:  Medication adherence is a critical for persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. Islamic-based insight enhancement therapy is a religious intervention to help Muslim persons with schizophrenia adhere to medication administration. Method: The IBIEP is a five week program comprised of nine sessions using several program protocols such as discussion, giving information, demonstration, and sharing of experiences. The focus of the program is enhancing the insight of the patients. The study used a quasi-experiment design to examine the effect of IBIEP on the medication adherence of Muslim patients with schziophrenia. Ten patients were randomly assigned to either the experimental group and the control group. Each group consisted of five persons. The Beck Cognitive Insight Scale was used to assess cognitive insight; The Birchwood Insight Scale was used to assess clinical insight, and The Medication Adherence Rating Scale was employed to determine medication adherence.

Results: The participants who received the IBIEP therapy had better medication adherence (U = 1.5, p < .05), cognitive insight (U = 1.0, p < .05), and clinical insight (U = .50,  p < .05,  ) as compared to the subject group who received routine care.

Conclusions: This pilot study showed that the Islamic-based insight enhancement program (IBIEP) has potential to enhance insight and should be further tested with a larger size of participants.