Medication Adherence

Medication can relieve symptoms in most people with depression, and it’s become the first line of treatment for most types of the disorder. (par. 41 ). “And the extra benefit of antidepressants was even less than we saw when we analyzed only published studies.” Scientists say in the article “The Depressing News About Antidepressants.”(par. 8). One reason why antidepressants should not be prescribed is that people could get used to taking those specific drugs, decreasing their effectiveness and increasing the likelihood of reliance or addiction. If patients take medications too long, they might get too used to them over time and eventually increase their dosage without consulting their doctors. If the overmedication continued, patients might eventually take too much of their medication, leading to an overdose. Many drugs should not be prescribed in case of patients trying to seek more medication without professional assistance.

In today's society people are quick to find easy and fast ways to make them feel better or reduce stress leading to long term health problems. Medication is designed to ease someone or somethings pain, but overusing a drug can result in side effects that can force someone to need more drugs to get better. Siri Carpenter believes that the use of multiple and unnecessary medication is escalating and frightening. “The use of multiple, often unnecessary medications — especially among older people — is an entrenched, escalating, frightening, and mostly unexamined problem in modern healthcare care,” (Carpenter 1). People find it easy to take

Patient Adherence: There is no known cure for chronic disease, the progressive nature of chronic disease the patient and family must adjust to continual treatment changes, and the chronic disease continues throughout the patient’s lifetime developmental and lifestyle changes often influence or pose additional challenges to the person with a chronic

Many patients are finding it more difficult to afford their prescription medications. Comparing health care expenditures in the United States, prescription drug costs rank third compared to hospital expenses and physician services (Omojasola, Hernandez, Sansgiry, & Jones, 2012, p. 479). The rising cost of prescription drugs is concerning to many patients. “The high out-of-pocket prescription drug cost is associated with medication non-adherence and adverse health outcomes” Omojasola, et al., 2012, p. 480).

The Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2020 to promote quality of life and healthy development across all life ages (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). As a healthcare professional working at retail sector, one of the pharmacist duties is to improve medication adherence that promote better quality of life for all groups. One of the biggest challenges for healthcare professional is improve medication adherence after the initial discharged of the patient to prevent hospital readmission. According to a study by the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), nearly one in five patients discharged from the hospital is readmitted within 30 days and resulted in an estimated total cost of readmissions

Pharmaceutical drug dependency is not a new craze sweeping the nation. Although it has progressed, it is something that has been a noticeable issue since the early twentieth century. For starters, there is a pill for everything; pregnancy, being over-weight, pain, sneezing, and much more. When you have a variety like that, it’s hard not to take the easy way out. The latest generations of prescription drugs compensate conditions such as depression, gynecological disorders, hyperactivity, impotence, sleeping problems and more. We are waist deep in a pill culture. According to Tennent, a reason for this up-rise in patients being so eager to take up prescription drugs is that new and more sophisticated drugs have reduced the severity of accompanying side-effects. (Tennent) However, this is a gamble and something one could not be sure of. There are medications prescribed for less

I have chosen the research topic of medication non-compliance, specifically regarding high blood pressure medication. I see patients very often at my job who do not take their medication because they say they feel fine or they forgot. I do teach my patients that they need to take their medication every day and suggest to take it at the same time as something they already do daily such as eating breakfast but my words seem to fall on deaf ears. Some patients don’t like the way the medication makes them feel so they just stop taking it instead of going back to their doctor. I believe that more visual aids in teaching such as videos that show what is happening inside your body when your pressure is high in addition to meeting stroke patients

Counselor met with Pt. for an individual session. Counselor and Pt. discussed her progress in treatment and description of her medication compliance. Pt. reported wanting a higher dosage of methadone to side effects (cold). Pt. mentioned that she would like to switch to Vivitrol medication because she is going to move with her mother house in Lewes, DE and she cant come to the clinic everyday. Pt. requested, discussed and completed an AMS Modality Switch form. Counselor encouraged Pt. to talk about her current triggers and possible solutions she can plan ahead of time. Pt. stated, "I have no triggers." Counselor elicited the client’s perceptions on her several positive urine analysis. Pt. indicated that she use crack cocaine when she is depressed.

Mental illnesses generally require some form of medication (Schmidt & Monaghan, 2012). Although mediation by itself is not sufficient in treating the mentally ill, it provides the groundwork with which other therapies can build on. The primary goal of medication compliance and management is the stabilization of symptom which allows the affected individual to begin participating in life again. It is important that the patient as well as the family and caregivers have knowledge about all of the medications the individual is taking in addition to its side effects, purpose, and any possible allergic reactions that might occur. Those family members and caretakers that are well-informed about medications are much better equipped

In conclusion, addressing the problem of non-adherence would help alleviate the burden of added costs to healthcare. When patients take their medications as prescribed, they are considered to be adherent. Adherence has two components that are complementary to each other: persistence and implementation

Tissot E, Cornette C, Limat S, et al. Observational study of potential risk factors of medication

Prescription medications serve the purpose of helping individuals with symptoms that are occurring in the short term. The perception people have on prescribed medication is widely positive due to the high number of daily consumers, but the world is only viewing the positives on this controversial topic. Consumers who have illnesses should not rely on prescription medications due to the negative side effects, high addiction rates and potential increase in crime proving that home remedies are much more reliable, healthier and safer alternatives.

The danger of medication nonadherence also comes in the health outcomes of those who fail to adhere. As explained above, when there is an increase in out-of-pocket spending required to get prescription drugs, there is an increase in noncompliance of medication usage. This increase in noncompliance can lead to an increase in a variety of negative outcomes in health. These can be regression or complication of the illness that was being medicated, emergency room trips and even admission into hospitals. No matter which negative health outcome occurs, it means a decrease in overall health for the Medicare beneficiary (Dalen, 2009; Stuart, 2005; Zhang and Donohue, 2009). This not only puts a strain on the beneficiary, once again spiking stress with illness relapse or hospital issues, but

Because of the aging process, multiple medications that are taking can be harmful to their bodies. It is not uncommon “for a client with multiple medical conditions to be on 6-9 medications” (Carroll, C., & Hassanin, A., 2017). If they are to become hospitalized it is possible that during their stay, they are prescribed new medications for an existing condition. These new medications can put an elderly client at risk for polypharmacy. The client may become overwhelmed and confused, and may add their new medication to their existing pill regimen and take both old and new. There may also be a situation where the elderly client has multiple physician appointments and they are all prescribing medications which can lead to “inadequate or lack of health counseling on pharmacological management” (Carroll, C., & Hassanin, A.,

DTCA may help improve patient compliance with drug regimens in addition to increasing the likelihood of having patients get their prescriptions reordered and continuing their regimen. Two surveys found physicians believe that DTCA exposure encourages patients to take a more active role in their health care as well as follow their prescribed regimen more accurately