Relationship Between Illness Representations, Psychosocial Adjustment, and Treatment Outcomes in Mental Disorders: A Mini Review.

Understanding and improving the psychosocial adjustments (e.g., quality of life, depression) and treatment outcomes (e.g., adherence, beliefs about treatments) of people with mental disorders are major health issues. The self-regulation model (SRM) postulates that illness representations play a central role on adjustment and treatment of people with physical illnesses. Recently, the SRM has been used with people with mental disorders. However, the manifestations of somatic and psychiatric disorders can be very different. Therefore, the use of SRM in the field of mental health is very complex. This difficulty, as well as the growing interest for illness representations in the field of mental health, justifies the utility to conduct a review on this topic. The current review shows that illness representations are related to psychosocial adjustment and/or treatment outcomes for people with various mental disorders [e.g., psychotic disorders, mood disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)]. However, some limitations to the applicability of SRM to mental disorders have been highlighted. These limitations should be considered in future studies.

Illness perceptions and adherence in bipolar disorder: An exploratory study.

BACKGROUND: According to the Self-Regulation Model, illness perceptions influence an individual's coping (such as the taking of treatment) and emotional response to their illness. Emerging research suggests that this model could be used to explore illness perceptions in mental health. The aim of this exploratory study is, firstly, to measure and describe illness perception in French patients with a bipolar diagnosis and, secondly, to explore associations between illness perceptions and adherence in this population. METHOD: Thirty-eight French patients with bipolar disorder completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire for Schizophrenia (except the identity dimension). We measured medication adherence with the Medication Adherence Rating Scale. RESULTS: Our results showed that patients with high perceptions concerning treatment control, low perceptions of negative emotions of their mental illness, low perception of consequences and high comprehension of their disorder had a better adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Illness perceptions can provide a framework for understanding adherence in bipolar disorder, and the findings could have important clinical and research implications.