Helping Patients Improve Medication Adherence
Source: Drug diaries help patients keep their scripts straight
By John Stobo. National Review of Medicine. Vol 4 No 13. July 30, 2007
This article consists of practical advice from Dr Alan Forster for helping patients organize their medication to improve the odds that they will follow the prescribed regimen. While directed at elderly patients, the same tips could apply to any age group.
The key to his recommendations is the use of a medication diary,1 which includes not only the schedule prescribed for the medication but also the side-effects, date the medication was started and stopped, and so forth.
Other recommendations, such as emphasizing hazards, promoting the use of memory aids, and staying in touch with patients, appear potentially useful although one should be aware that these appear to be distillations of clinical experience rather than evidence-based tactics. Research derived compliance enhancement methodologies being few and far between, however, tips such as these should be considered by practicing clinicians concerned about noncompliance.
Footnotes
- A sample medication diary page is shown below.
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