ObjectiveTo systematically review the effects of adherence therapy in improving medication adherence and clinical outcomes in psychosis patients. MethodsWe searched databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 10, 2015), EBSCO, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data from inception to Oct. 2015, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about adherence therapy for patients with psychosis. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of 13 RCTs involving 1 244 patients were included. The results of metaanalysis showed that adherence therapy could improve attitude towards medication adherence (MD=3.12, 95%CI 1.26 to 4.98, P=0.001), behavioral adherence (SMD=0.54, 95%CI 0.21 to 0.88, P=0.001), function (SMD=0.42, 95%CI 0.28 to 0.56, P=0.000 01) and insight of diseases (SMD=0.34, 95%CI 0.15 to 0.54, P=0.000 7) in patients with psychosis. But regarding psychotic symptoms, hospital stay, medical costs and adverse drug reactions, adherence therapy did not show benefit (all P values >0.05). ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that adherence therapy could improve medication adherence, function and insight towards diseases in patients with psychosis. Due to the limited quantity and quality of included studies, more large-scale, multi-center, and high quality RCTs are needed to verify the above conclusion.