Within six months, one in three patients fail to take medications as prescribed

Therapy that includes medications to reduce high blood pressure and to lower lipid levels can reduce risk for heart disease, but within six months, more than a third of patients fail to take one or both medications as prescribed, according to a study in the May 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients with both high blood pressure and dyslipidemia (high lipid levels), are at substantially greater risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events, such as heart attack, than those with either condition alone, according to background information in the article. The current study was designed to study how well patients with both conditions adhere to a drug regimen including both anti-hypertensive (AH, blood pressure lowering) and lipid-lowering (LL) medications.

What does this have to do with psychology and mental health? Because clinicians and doctors are constantly grappling with the issue they term “medication compliance.” Namely, patients not taking medications as prescribed.

This study showed that if you reduce the number of medications a person takes, and the person is younger, and you try and ensure all the medications are prescribed at the same time, you’re likely going to get much better compliance than if the person is taking more than multiple meds, is older, and is started on different meds at different times.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has no comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 24 May 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.