Login | Site Map | Archives | Electronic Edition | Mobile Edition | Alerts | RSS | Contact Us | Submit News & Photos | Subscriber Services

HomeLifeHealth

Study finds we aren't so good at taking our meds

A spoonful of sugar may help keep track, too

STORY TOOLS

— Mary Poppins said a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. But that’s only if you take your medicine.

A new report finds that patients many times don’t take medicines prescribed by their doctors.

After a lot of research, the medical community finds there’s no proven way to get people to take their medicine, spoonful of sugar or not.

Some doctors send reminders to patients and others follow up with telephone calls, according to Dr. Brian Haynes, who reported his findings in The Cochrane Library, part of a group of publications that evaluate medical research. The study was reported in Health Behavior News Service.

One study found that patients take only half the prescription medicines they administer themselves. While missing dosages may not hurt in some cases, they can be serious in others.

When patients don’t take prescription medication, a higher death rate was found, according to a compilation of previous studies on the subject.

The study found 78 previous studies that looked not only at adherence, but also outcomes from not taking medications.

Haynes said doctors need to emphasize taking drugs properly.

“Teamwork can help: nurses, pharmacists, sometimes a family member or friend,” he said in the report.

“Your doctor can’t tell if you are not taking your meds and may over-prescribe if she thinks it isn’t working, when, in fact, you aren’t taking it.”

So, grab the spoon and sugar.

Comments

There are 5 responses to this article.

Comments are meant to offer our readers a forum for thoughtful, robust debate about local issues.

Comments are moderated, but you may find the content of the conversations offensive, objectionable or factually disputable.

Click here for our user-contributions policy.

Comments

IndependentMail.com does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post or respond to every suggestion for a comment to be removed.

Before you post, consider this:

  1. Keep it clean. Comments containing obscene, profane, vulgar, lewd or sexually-oriented language -- including creative spelling and typographical representations of foul language -- will be removed.
  2. Be truthful. Don't lie or spread rumors about anyone or anything. Stick to discussing what is factually known.
  3. Be nice. Don't threaten anyone, and do not post any comments that involve racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person. Hateful or offensive comments will not be tolerated.
  4. Police yourselves. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button to alert us to objectionable comments. Do not respond to trolls or those who seek to harass another poster.
  5. Stay focused. Keep on the story's topic.
  6. Help us get it right. If you have information to add to the story or you find a factual error or misspelling send us an email or call the newsroom at 864-260-1274.

Please read our official user-contributions policy.

Thanks to federal state and local taxes I don`t have to worry about taking my meds. I can`t afford to buy them anymore, and if I could I couldn`t afford the gas to go get them.


Walmart has a huge list of $4 Rx meds now which can be a big help to a lot of people.

The pharmaceutical companies are the ones to blame for the outrageous prices.


Flash, check out http://www.needymeds.com/
for assistance.
Also if you are ever prescribed antibiotics Publix has 7 of them free.
The pharmaceutical lobby is one of the largest in Washington and they contribute to politicians. In this wealthy country of ours no one should go with medicine. I pretty much went through my entire life's savings through illness and medicines.


I think its great that walmart and publix is doing this. My daughter is on a med that they recently made OTC and it cost more to get it OTC than with the ins plan. Just add new higher prices for Rx to another F*** up from DC. This is our gov working hard for us. (LMAO)


I do agree that the pharmaceutical company is to blame for the high prices of medcine, but me, as well as a lot of other employees for a 'well' known company, were shocked juat a weeek or so ago, when we found out our employer 'the owner' was dropping our insurance. and offered us a supplementry policy. When i expressed my concern to one of the managers, i was told, 'I'm sorry' what is really sad, is the managers are able to keep thier police. The one we were offered only pays 6 docter visits a year and only up to 100.00 a month on medcine. There are other employees as well as me who spend well over 500.00 a month on medcine and have several dr visits a month. so 'what do we do? make house payments and eat? or take medcine and live in our cars, by the way, which we can't afford the gas to put in it.




Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)

Username:

Password:
(Forgotten your password?)

Comment:

  Want the editors to know how you feel? Click here to say it privately.