BMJ  2003;327:840 (11 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7419.840

Commentary

Does a prescribed treatment match a patient's priorities?

¹ Institute of Clinical Education, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, St Luke's Campus, Exeter EX1 2LU nicky.britten@pms.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Within the past 10 years several studies carried out in different settings have investigated patients' perceptions of prescribed drugs. Most of these studies have been qualitative and relatively small scale. They have all revealed considerable ambivalence about drug taking. This study by Townsend and colleagues confirms the validity of these findings for a community based sample of middle aged people in Scotland with multiple morbidities and provides a rich description of the different aspects of this ambivalence. Most prescribed drugs are taken by elderly people with chronic conditions.

This study also helps to explain quantitative research that has identified core beliefs about the perceived necessity of taking prescribed drugs as well as concerns about potential harms.¹ It shows the futility of labelling patients as "compliers" or "non-compliers," as the same person may take one drug regularly while altering the dose or frequency of another. The paper shows the ambiguous yet . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Chronically ill patients are ambivalent about drug taking
BMJ 2003 327: 0. [Full Text]

Managing multiple morbidity in mid-life: a qualitative study of attitudes to drug use

Anne Townsend, Kate Hunt, and Sally Wyke
BMJ 2003 327: 837. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• McCray, A. T. (2005). Promoting Health Literacy. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 12: 152-163 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Hausman, A. (2004). Modeling the Patient-Physician Service Encounter: Improving Patient Outcomes. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 32: 403-417 [Abstract]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The Horse Whisperer

Chris L Manning
bmj.com, 12 Oct 2003 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>