A patient with severe schizophrenia is seen at a community mental health center.Although he continues to attend programming at the center,he tells the nurse,"I threw away the pills because they keep me from hearing God." Which of the following responses would be most likely to benefit this patient?

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The patient appears not to understand that he has an illness.He has stopped his medication because it interferes with a symptom that he finds desirable (auditory hallucinations-the voice of God).Connecting medication adherence to one of the patient's goals (the job)can serve to motivate the patient to take the medication and override his concern about losing the hallucinations.Exhorting a patient with anosognosia to take his medication because the medicine is needed to control his illness is unlikely to be successful,because he does not believe he has an illness.Medication psychoeducation would be appropriate if the cause of nonadherence was a knowledge deficit,but here it is anosognosia.

A Patient with Severe Schizophrenia Is Seen at a Community