Psychological Rehabilitation During Long-Term Pharmacotherapy: Patients' Experiences of Adjustment, Treatment Engagement and Recovery

Abstract

 

Long-term pharmacotherapy is central to managing many chronic conditions but treatment is usually evaluated through symptom control and adherence rates rather than the psychological experience of living with medication over years. This study explored how patients receiving long-term pharmacotherapy for a chronic psychiatric condition experienced psychological rehabilitation and how they perceived its contribution to adjustment, treatment engagement and recovery. A qualitative design using reflexive thematic analysis was applied to semi-structured interviews exploring illness experience, medication use, treatment concerns and psychological support. Five themes are presented: living with medication as a constant reminder of illness; moving from being treated to managing treatment; psychological rehabilitation as a space for rebuilding agency; recovery as returning to life rather than becoming medication-free; and psychological rehabilitation as an unequal resource. Findings suggest that patients hold medication as necessary while experiencing it as a marker of illness or dependency and that psychological rehabilitation is valued for building understanding, communication and coping, though access remains constrained by availability, cost and stigma. The findings support integrating psychological rehabilitation into long-term pharmacological care rather than treating it as an optional service and point to patient-reported functioning and recovery, not medication status alone, as outcomes worth tracking in future research.