Peer Reviewed
Psychological medicine
Working with the noncompliant patient
Abstract
There are many reasons why a patient may not comply with a medication or treatment. Usually these can be managed by thorough assessment of the situation and the patient’s concerns, discussion of the issues and careful negotiation with the patient.
Key Points
- Noncompliance with medical advice or treatment is common, with at least half of all patients being noncompliant at some stage of treatment.
- Compliance tends to be lower in conditions that require longer-term prophylactic treatment and where the consequences of treatment discontinuation are delayed.
- Medication noncompliance is an important factor in treatment outcomes for many medical conditions, and the increased morbidity and mortality rates are a significant public health problem in terms of human and economic costs.
- The rate of noncompliance with treatment for psychiatric disorders is probably no worse than in treatment for physical disorders.
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