Almost a Third of Patients Don't Take Drugs as Directed
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As many as one third of patients do not take their medications as directed, data indicate. In a study that examined more than 200,000 patients and 91,000 unique prescriptions, overall nonadherence rates ranged from 13.7% for patients prescribed antidepressants to 30.3% for patients prescribed antihypertensive therapies.
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@lalit The researchers found that for conditions that typically are symptomatic (such as infections, depression, and anxiety), nonadherence ranged from 13.7% to 17.5%. For asymptomatic conditions (such as hypertension, osteoporosis, and diabetes), nonadherence rates ranged from 21.2% to 30.3%. Lipid-lowering agents for asymptomatic hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease were an exception to this general trend. The primary nonadherence rate for these medicines was 15.2%.