BMJ  2005;330:1250 (28 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.38464.595741.AE (published 9 May 2005)

Commentary

Barriers to concordance with antidiabetic drugs—cultural differences or human nature?

¹ University College London, London N19 5LW

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

British Indian and British Pakistani patients think that the products of the pharmaceutical industry are potent and may do harm. They do not want to take any more tablets than they absolutely have to. They discontinue their tablets if they have major side effects. They distrust doctors who stand to gain financially from prescribing particular drugs. They use creative strategies to titrate the dose of their drugs to the lowest that they consider works.¹ In all these respects, the sample reported here has more similarities to than differences from the indigenous British population, and indeed most other groups studied in relation to medicine taking.^{2 3}

That said, this study is no less important than it would have been if the authors had detected a set of perceptions and attitudes that were unique to British South Asians. In terms of action points for practice and policy, however, I disagree with these authors . . . [Full text of this article]

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