Abstract

Objectives: Antipsychotic agents remain the primary treatment for schizophrenia. However, treatment compliance can influence the prognoses of patients. Previous studies have reported that sex can influence the side effect and compliance of antipsychotics. However, sex-related effects on treatment compliance and brain activity patterns remain to be investigated in schizophrenia. We conducted a pilot study to (1) investigate how sex may influence treatment compliance in patients with schizophrenia and to (2) characterize brain activity features associated with sex-specific differences in treatment compliance.
Methods: We enrolled 53 male and 45 female patients with schizophrenia in this pilot study. The Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) was adopted to evaluate the treatment compliance of patients, while global functional connectivity density (gFCD) was used to assess brain activity features. The positive and negative assessment scale (PANSS) was adopted to assess the psychotic symptoms.
Results: In this pilot study, male patients had significantly higher MARS scores (P

Key words: Schizophrenia, treatment compliance, antipsychotics, sex, gFCD, PANSS