Psychoactive medication adherence in substance users living with HIV/AIDS

To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing literature that examines psychoactive medication adherence specifically within the HIV positive, mentally ill, and substance abusing population. In order to contribute to existing literature, five focus groups examined psychoactive medication adherence at three drug treatment programs. Investigators asked questions to obtain descriptions of participants' quality of life when they were and were not taking their psychoactive medication as prescribed, to learn what factors participants thought might interfere with taking prescribed psychoactive medication and last, what participants thought would help them improve adherence. The participants stated that the role that others play in their lives was influential in their decisions to adhere to psychoactive regimens. However, they also cited fear of relapse, medication side effects, drug toxicity, stigma, lack of control over treatments, and strong incentives for selling medication as reasons for non-adherence. This study revealed that basic strategies already reported in the literature as useful, such as therapeutic alliance, need to be continued in practice. Health practitioners should not take for granted basic concepts of education, support, and relationships as they provide care to this challenging and complicated population.