Noncompliance plagues doctors

By ANDY CLARKE
Collegian Staff Writer

Noncompliance, a term used by doctors when patients do not take their prescription medications properly, could be a bigger problem than students realize.

Lynn Fotis, pharmacist at Boalsburg Apothecary, said compliance is a major medical issue. She estimated that about half of the time, patients do not comply with medicine instructions.

"I would say that compliance is one of the most important components in taking a medication," she said.

While many people don't take prescriptions properly because of inconvenience, the results of not following doctors' directions could create more hassles in the long run.

"(Noncompliance) can definitely result in more office visits, more lab tests and possible hospitalization," Fotis said.

But despite such warnings from the medical community, many patients trust their own judgment when it comes their health and medicinal needs.

"If I feel good, what's the point of taking (the medication)?" asked Min Lee (senior-political science).

Often the problem of noncompliance can be attributed to simple forgetfulness, said Craig Saxton, vice president of central research at Pfizer Inc., on the company's World Wide Web site (www.pfizer.com). People also stop taking medicine if it causes disagreeable side effects, he said, or if they feel better and think they are cured.

"I never take all of my medicine," Michael Levin (sophomore-management science and information systems) said. "If I feel better, I just stop taking it."

In the early 1990s, the federal government conducted a study on compliance with prescriptions, asking a group of people to take two puffs of an inhaler three times per day.

When asked how well they complied with the requirements of the prescription, about three-quarters of the group said for the most part, they had taken the inhaler as prescribed. But, according to microchips secretly installed in the inhalers, only about 15 percent of the people actually used it properly.

Perhaps the worst effect of noncompliance is that it gives infection-causing bacteria a chance to become drug-resistant, Saxton said.

"Some patients compound the risk by saving pills from one prescription, then using them to self-prescribe . . . later. You wouldn't find a better way to breed 'superbugs' outside of a Petri dish," Saxton said.

To avoid the perils of noncompliance, AmeriHealth recommends patients communicate thoroughly with their pharmacists.

The group suggests patients who take a number of medications should get them all from one pharmacist. In addition, it recommends carrying a list and schedule to help remind patients when to take each prescription.