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Key message: Medication adverse events can impair workplace performance, and can act as a barrier to entering or returning to work. The stigma resulting from medication adverse events leads to perceptions of laziness and addiction problems in patients with schizophrenia, and this stigma causes some patients to reduce or skip their medication.
Background
- This study was a semi-structured focus group, conducted in Slovenia. It included 10 inpatients (four women and six men aged 30–61 years) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with severe and remitting mental illness treated with antipsychotic medication.[Novak & Švab, 2009]
- The aim was to obtain the patient’s personal views on how the adverse events of antipsychotic drugs contribute to the stigmatisation related to mental illness.[Novak & Švab, 2009]
- Open-ended questions were posed about the influence of adverse events on illness disclosure, work performance, family relationships and treatment adherence.[Novak & Švab, 2009]
- The patients felt most stigmatised in areas of employment and occupation.[Novak & Švab, 2009]
- They repeatedly skipped or discontinued regular medication because of adverse events.[Novak & Švab, 2009]
- A report from the ‘Work Foundation’ highlights the barriers experienced by people with schizophrenia in Germany to entering and remaining in the open labour market.[Steadman, 2015]
- In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of how the structural, economic, clinical and attitudinal barriers to employment affect people with schizophrenia, previous studies were reviewed, and in-depth interviews with people with experience of living with schizophrenia were conducted.[Steadman, 2015]
- The opinions of professionals with expertise in the provision of health, social care and vocational rehabilitation, policy experts, and employers were also sought.[Steadman, 2015]
- Schizophrenia often has considerable influence on an individual’s employment opportunities.[Steadman, 2015]
- The symptoms of the illness, adverse events of the treatment and the possibility of relapse may make entering or returning to work difficult.[Steadman, 2015]
- This is exacerbated by the onset of schizophrenia commonly occurring during the teens and early twenties – interrupting education, early career and the transition to independent living.[Steadman, 2015]
- Illness onset can have significant implications for an individual’s employment prospects, with employers searching out employees with the best job history and qualifications.[Steadman, 2015]
- Similarly, the gaps in employment history caused by periods of ill health may reduce an individual’s attractiveness to employers, compared with other candidates.[Steadman, 2015]
References:
Novak L, Švab V. Antipsychotics side effects’ influence on stigma of mental illness: focus group study results. Psychiatr Danub 2009; 21 (1): 99–102.
Steadman K. Working with schizophrenia: employment, recovery and inclusion in Germany. The Work Foundation. 2015.