Table 2.

Barriers to Antihypertensive Medication Adherence among Participants With Bipolar Disorder (BD) (n =13)

Themes and Categories	Illustrative Quotations from Respondents
Forgetfulness and Competing Demands	“The only thing that prevents me from taking mine is I forget it. I just plain forget it. Maybe rushing out in the morning or something.” Respondent #6 “Just the hustle-and-bustle of everyday! Sometimes you wake up and you have an appointment and you’re rushing and stuff like that.” Respondent #8
Side Effects	““I have a problem taking that ‘cause I’m like at the bathroom all night long. Every 30 minutes it seems like I got to go to the bathroom and that’s from taking that water pill so sometimes I’ll skip it.” Respondent #10 “They cause dizziness so I try to not take both of them at the same time.” Respondent.” #2
Attitudes	Sometimes I look at that blood pressure pill and the rest of them like damn I don’t feel like taking it, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Respondent #11 “Whether I take the blood pressure meds or don’t take them, I’ll still wake up dead.” Respondent #13
Decision Making	“I think this pill looks like the one for this and that pill looks like the one for that and all 12 pills are different colors! I’m like I ain’t gonna take all these pills, and then I split them in half and just take half of them randomly.” Respondent #11 “When I’m up, (mood), I feel like “I don’t need that. If I’m like feeling too good to worry about what my BP is because I’m moving around, running to work, or helping a friend.” Respondent #5