Self-Efficacy and Perceived Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Medication Adherence in Patients with Mental Disorders: A Literature Review

Abstract Compliance to treatment is an essential health behavior in chronic ill patients. Self-efficacy refers to a person's belief or beliefs about their ability to successfully perform the required behavior to produce specific outcomes. The purpose of this paper was to investigate through the literature review whether self-efficacy and perceived self-efficacy contribute to medication adherence in people with mental disorders. A systematic review of the literature in the electronic databases, google scholar, pubmed and Scopus was carried out. Studies and articles in Greek and English were studied and selected, on the topic of self-efficacy as a predictive factor in medication compliance of mental patients. The literature review showed that studies on the degree of compliance of mentally ill patients and perceived self-efficacy are significantly associated with both treatment adherence and compliance as well as self-management. The findings also show that self-efficacy, quality of life and social functionality of patients with mental disorders are important self-factors that influence the degree of medication compliance. Our research confirms that self-efficacy is a strong predictor of medication adherence, as well as self-management. The positive correlation with compliance holds for all types of self-efficacy.