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Review
. 2020 Jun 16;8(2):103.
doi: 10.3390/pharmacy8020103.

Ingestible Sensors and Medication Adherence: Focus on Use in Serious Mental Illness

Azita Alipour  1 , Stephen Gabrielson  2 , Puja Baldev Patel  1
Affiliations
Review

Ingestible Sensors and Medication Adherence: Focus on Use in Serious Mental Illness

Azita Alipour et al. Pharmacy (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Poor medication adherence is a major public health concern. Patients living with a serious mental illness (SMI) commonly present with non-adherence to their medication regimen, which can lead to relapse and hospitalizations. The high rates of antipsychotic non-adherence continue to persist despite several interventions and medication advances. This review evaluates the possible role of the ingestible sensor technology for medication adherence in different conditions, with a focus on use in the SMI schizophrenia.

Methods: Literature searches were conducted in July 2019 in the PubMed database.

Results: In small studies of ingestible sensor use, the average adherence ranged from 73.9% to 88.6% for SMI and ≥ 80% for cardiac and transplant (99.4%) patients. In SMI studies, patients were clinically stable, and the majority had a clinical global impression severity of "mild disease". Patients generally experienced relatively minor dermatological adverse effects related to wearable sensor use.

Conclusions: A medication with an ingestible sensor may help provide real-time objective medication-taking adherence information for clinicians. However, further studies are needed to understand the impact of use on adherence and improvement on treatment outcomes with the ingestible sensor technology.

Keywords: adherence; antipsychotic; ingestible sensor; schizophrenia; serious mental illness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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