Maybe a Spoonful of Sugar Would Help?

Via Well, I find this NYT piece about how a lot of people don't take their medications, either fully as directed, or in some cases at all.

Apparently, significant numbers of people don't even fill the prescriptions written for them by their doctors, making "medication nonadherence" (didn't they use to call it "noncompliance"? Maybe that sounded too subservient?) a problem costing "More than $170 billion annually in the United States alone."

A lot of this is due to the fact that people who have chronic conditions and aren't taking their medication wind up with less well-controlled symptoms, and thus spend more time sicker than they otherwise might.

I must say that medication adherence is one of my superpowers. Based on personal medication history with which I will not bore you, I calculate that I have a lifetime adherence rate of 99.94%. I am clearly the person you want taking your pills for you--so hand 'em over!

Only if they do something fun, though. (Which, sadly, is almost never. One thing medicine usually is not: a rollicking good time.)

As for the aspects of this question that do not give me a chance to talk about myself...(yawn)...obviously money is often part of the problem, since medications can be very expensive.

Another problem suggested in the article is that it may be simply too big a hassle for people to fill prescriptions. It certainly can be kind of a pain, especially if there's no pharmacy nearby--you have to get to one, hand in the prescription, and then come back to pick it up, and often you have to come back the next day, meaning that if the pharmacy is inconvenient for you, you've had to make two separate inconvenient trips.

If you don't really feel that bad, I can see how you might just never get around to going.

I have high praise for refills that come by mail, making life a lot easier, but even then you have to get the initial prescription sent off to the mail-order pharmacy, and sometimes that can be a bit daunting. Forms to fill out, things to fax or mail here or there, or else you have to ask your doctor's office to call or mail something, and maybe you just don't feel like bothering.

I have sympathy for the just not wanting to deal with it. I hate paperwork and waiting on hold too.

If I can figure out how to bottle my 99% adherence, I'll make a fortune. I mean, if anyone fills the prescription for it and actually takes the stuff.

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