Medication Adherence, Treatment Attitudes, and Beliefs About Medicines in Romanian Psychiatric Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Medication adherence is a major determinant of treatment effectiveness in psychiatric care and is influenced by patients’ attitudes toward medication and beliefs about treatment. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate medication adherence, drug attitudes, and beliefs about medicines, and to examine their relationships in the study population. Methods: A total of 300 participants were assessed using the Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), Drug Attitude Inventory-10 (DAI-10), and Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ-General and BMQ-Specific). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, Pearson correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression were performed. Results: The mean DAI-10 score was 3.57 ± 3.44, indicating an overall positive attitude toward medication, although 27.33% of participants had neutral or negative attitudes. The mean MARS score was 6.27 ± 2.24, suggesting moderate adherence. Mean BMQ-General and BMQ-Specific scores were 21.70 ± 5.81 and 31.64 ± 6.13, respectively. Significant gender differences were found across all scales. DAI-10 was positively correlated with MARS, while BMQ-General was negatively correlated with MARS. Multiple regression showed that DAI-10, BMQ-General, and BMQ-Specific significantly predicted MARS scores, explained 30.8% of variance after adjustment. Conclusions: Medication adherence was moderate and was significantly associated with treatment attitudes and beliefs about medicines. The findings support multidimensional assessment and targeted interventions addressing both positive attitudes and negative medication beliefs.