1. Non-Adherence to Pharmacotherapy: A Prospective Multicentre Study About Its Incidence and Its Causes Perceived by Chronic Pain Patients
- Author
-
José M. Castro Lopes, Rute Sampaio, Cláudia Camila Dias, and Luís Filipe Azevedo
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Narcotic ,business.industry ,Health Policy ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Incidence (epidemiology) ,05 social sciences ,Chronic pain ,Psychological intervention ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,medicine.disease ,0506 political science ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Pharmacotherapy ,Quality of life ,Cohort ,050602 political science & public administration ,medicine ,Physical therapy ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Medical prescription ,business ,Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous) ,Social Sciences (miscellaneous) - Abstract
Objective Pharmacological interventions remain the cornerstone of chronic pain treatment; however, nearly 40% of the prescription medicines are not taken as prescribed. The present study aims at understanding and describing non-adherence from the perspective of chronic pain patients during a 1-year follow-up study. Methods A cohort of 950 consecutive patients referred to a first consultation in Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Clinics was followed with a standardized protocol for 1 year. This included assessment of pain characteristics; prescribed medication; therapeutic adherence; effectiveness of treatment, non-adherence and its perceived reasons; clinical outcomes and quality of life. We used a mixed methods approach, including qualitative and quantitative analyses. Results Forty-nine percent of the 562 patients who responded to all assessments during follow-up were adherent after 1 year of chronic pain treatment. The core associations between each "non-adherence reason" and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Code (ATC) group were perceived side effects (p=0.019) and delayed start (p=0.022) for narcotic analgesics (opioids); perceived non-efficacy (p=0.017) and delayed start (p=0.004) for antiepileptics and anticonvulsants; perceived low necessity (p=0.041) and delayed start (p=0.036) for analgesics antipyretics; change in prescriptions because of a new clinical condition for antidepressants (p=0.024); high concerns (p=0.045) and change in prescriptions because of a new clinical condition (p
- Published
- 2020