Adherence to (or compliance with) a medication regimen is generallydefined as the extent to which patients take medications asprescribed by their health care providers. The word "adherence"is preferred by many health care providers, because "compliance"suggests that the patient is passively following the doctor'sorders and that the treatment plan is not based on a therapeuticalliance or contract established between the patient and thephysician. Both terms are imperfect and uninformative descriptionsof medication-taking behavior. Unfortunately, applying theseterms to patients who . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Measures of Adherence
Epidemiology of Medication-Taking Behavior
Identifying Poor Adherence
Barriers to Adherence
Interventions
Examples of Challenges to Adherence
HIV Infection
Hypertension
Psychiatric Illness
Illness in Pediatric Patients
Conclusions
Source Information
From the General Medicine Division, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (L.O.); and the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford (T.B.) — both in California.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Osterberg at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304, or at larso@stanford.edu.
Related Letters:
Adherence to Medication
Campbell R. J. Jr., Krienke R., Lippman A., Treharne G. J., Lyons A. C., Kitas G. D., Osterberg L., Blaschke T.
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N Engl J Med 2005;
353:1972-1974, Nov 3, 2005.
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