THE RELATION OF ATTITUDE TOWARD MEDICATION TO TREATMENT OUTCOMES IN CHEMOTHERAPY
DONALD R. GORHAM PH.D.1, and
LEWIS J. SHERMAN PH.D.2
1 VA Central NP Research Laboratory, Perry Point, Md.
2 VA Hospital, Brockton, Mass.
An Attitude Toward Medication Scale was administered before and after treatment to 369 patients in a large-scale chemotherapy study. The hypothesis that the attitude of patients toward medication has an important bearing on treatment effect was not upheld with this population of chronic, apathetic schizophrenics. Medication attitude, however, was significantly related to a cluster of symptoms that tend to characterize paranoid schizophrenics indicating that the more paranoid the patient, the less faith he had that he might be helped by medication.
