High Adherence to Pharmacological Treatment Guidelines in Recovery and Remission States Among Patients With Schizophrenia: A Cross‐Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Several schizophrenia guidelines have been published, showing treatment efficacy. However, no studies have examined recovery and pharmacological therapy or guideline adherence's impact on various schizophrenia states. This study aimed to investigate adherence to pharmacological guidelines across recovery, remission, and non-remission states in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 72 patients with schizophrenia who met the criteria for recovery, remission, or non-remission. Adherence to pharmacological guidelines was measured using the Individual Fitness Score (IFS). RESULTS: IFS was significantly higher in the recovery (88.1 ± 18.9) and remission (89.0 ± 16.7) groups than in the non-remission group (65.59 ± 21.8) (p < 0.01). However, no significant differences were observed between the recovery and remission groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis identified 72 points on the IFS as a potential cutoff point between remission and non-remission. CONCLUSION: These results show that higher adherence to pharmacological guidelines may be associated with recovery and remission state, compared with non-remission state. The cutoff point between remission and non-remission should be considered preliminary and exploratory because of a small sample. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed to standardize and improve the quality of medical care. Treatments following these guidelines have been reported to be effective.