Psychiatric genetic counseling for serious mental illness: Impact on psychopathology and psychotropic medication adherence.

Abstract For people with serious mental illness (SMI) (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder), psychiatric genetic counseling (PGC) has been shown to significantly increase empowerment and illness management self-efficacy. While these outcomes are important, they are also theoretical precursors for behavior changes (e.g. improved medication adherence), and improved mental health. Therefore, we conducted the first study (repeated-measures/within-subjects design) to test the hypothesis that PGC would reduce psychiatric symptoms due to increased medication adherence. Between 2013–2018, we recruited N = 109 individuals (age 19–72) with SMI and administered the short Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (short-PANSS) and Brief Adherence Rating Scale (BARS) at four timepoints; twice Pre-PGC (T1: 1-month Pre-PGC and T2: immediately Pre-PGC), to assess change in adherence/symptoms without any intervention (internal control condition), and twice Post-PGC (T3: 1-month and T4: 2-months Post-PGC), to assess impact of PGC. A quantile regression model investigated the relationships between short-PANSS, timepoints, and BARS. There was a significant relationship between short-PANSS and timepoints at the 75th (T4 short-PANSS scores