From a quarter to even a third of prescriptions are not fulfilled at all, warn the authors of the new handbook for doctors, Non-compliance with therapeutic recommendations, which has been released to PAP, which will be sent to the medical community in the coming days.
One of the main authors of the textbook, prof. Zbigniew Kardas from the Medical University of Lodz explains that not buying a prescription by the patient is the so-called primary non-compliance with therapeutic recommendations. It consists in the fact that the patient gives up the treatment at the very beginning, before even going to the pharmacy to buy drugs.
The specialist cites research carried out on 255 people to whom doctors prescribed drugs to lower blood cholesterol levels due to hypercholesterolaemia. They show that 26 patients (10,2%) did not start treatment at all because they did not buy the prescribed drugs. 20 patients (7,8%) stopped taking medication after using the first purchased package. In total, almost every fifth patient stopped treatment at the very beginning of the ordered therapy.
Prof. Kardas claims that patients’ compliance with the prescribed dosage of drugs is worse. Only 21 percent. People suffering from coronary artery disease systematically take a full range of medications, such as beta-blockers, acetylsalicylic acid and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Even when treatment is short-term and the severity of disease symptoms is high, adherence to therapeutic recommendations is significantly different from expectations – the meta-analysis showed that nearly 40% patients make deviations from the prescribed antibiotic dosing regimen – emphasizes the specialist.
According to prof. Kardas, at least 20 percent. patients take a drug holiday at least once a month, i.e. stop taking pharmaceuticals for a few days. However, the longer the therapy must last, the more patients stop taking it. A survey by the American Association of Retired People revealed that only 5-10% of treatment continued after 15 years of treatment. patients.
In the case of chronic respiratory diseases, the persistence in implementing the dosing schedule is so low that after 12 months the therapy is continued by no more than 20%. sick – states in the publication of prof. Kardas.