Schizophrenia is a very incapacitating mental diseases. A lack of pharmacological adherence drives to an increased relapse and hospitalizations incidence. Strategies focused on improving adherence could benefit patients and improve their quality of life (QoL).

To assess improvements on QoL by increasing treatment adherence.

This was a national, multicentre, open-label randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of a Short Message Service (SMS) system on improving adherence in schizophrenic patients. Patients in the SMS group received reminders via mobile phone about their medication during the first 3 months after inclusion. Controls were not sent any reminder and received standard care. Adherence was assessed by mean of the 4-item Morisky-Green test (Medication Adherence Questionnaire, MAQ) and attitude towards medication was assessed by the 10-Item Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10) at baseline and 3 and 6 months after the inclusion. QoL was assessed by the EuroQol (EQ-5D) questionnaire at the same visits.

Based on Intention To Treat (ITT) population, 100 (39.4%) patients comprised the SMS Group, whereas 154 (60.6%) patients were controls. There were not statistically significant differences on demographic characteristics between both groups. More patients improved their adherence (MAQ) in SMS group compared to the control group [44.0% vs. 28.6% (p = 0.012)]. No significant differences were found regarding attitude towards medication (DAI-10), however improvements in DAI-10 were associated with improvements in EQ-5D [82.5% vs. 64.9% (p = 0.029)].

SMS reminders improved adherence to treatment and improved patients’ outcomes with a positive impact on QoL.