Doctor Trust Helps Patients Stick with Meds

Depression and trust in their doctors are important factors influencing whether patients take their prescription medicines, and this may be especially true when medication costs are high, researchers report.

The study of 912 patients with diabetes found that patients who trust their doctors are more likely to take their prescription drugs, even if they have high out-of-pocket costs. Patients who don’t trust their doctors or who have depression-like symptoms are much more likely to forego doses or refills if they’re faced with high drug costs.

The findings, by researchers at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare Center and the University of Michigan (U-M), show how important the doctor-patient relationship can be when patients have to cope with high drug costs. The researchers said their study shows that doctors need to talk with patients beyond just telling patients how a medicine will help them. Doctors also need to talk to patients about their ability to pay for drugs and the availability of cheaper drugs.

Share: del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | StumbleUpon | Yahoo |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 12:56 pm and is filed under General, Medications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

 

Last reviewed:
  On August 16, 2005
  By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.