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 (ROC) analysis identified 72 points on the IFS as a potential cutoff point between remission and non-remission. Conclusion These results indicate that adherence to pharmacological guidelines may contribute to achieving remission from non-remission, and an IFS of 72 could be an indicator of pharmacotherapy, though it may not be enough to achieve recovery in patients with schizophrenia. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed to standardize and improve the quality of medical care, and several schizophrenia guidelines have been published worldwide. Treatments following these guidelines have been reported to be effective.