Getting inside patients' heads

Posted by on Nov 3, 2009

I dont know about you, but it seems in study after study, the feedback from patients is much the same when it comes to the challenges of patient compliance: they forget, they feel better and so they cease taking their medication, they arent convinced the medication is actually helping them, so they stop taking it and so on. These are difficult challenges to overcome and the solutions for addressing them vary so much by patient population and disease therapy, that I think sometimes were so overwhelmed that we simply give up trying.

A survey conducted by AstraZeneca in 2008 among more than 7,800 patients online and reported by a speaker at a recent eyeforpharma conference brought more of what weve become accustomed to hearing from patients:

39% said theyve deliberately missed a dose of medication or have taken themselves off a medication without checking with their doctors

43% of patients in general, and 47% of asthma patients, said they often or sometimes feel their medicine isnt doing them much good

25% said they sometimes or often heard news reports that made them decide they would be better off without their medication

Perhaps most interestingly, however, in one of the strongest overall responses to this AstraZeneca survey, 57% of respondents said they would not take their medication unless they completely understood why they needed it. This is a question I havent seen patients asked quite so directly before. I would argue that its the $64,000 question of patient compliance really.

And surely this statistic explains all of the others. Because if you look closely at the other issues outlined here, they are ones that perhaps pharmas and even physicians have somewhat limited ability to influence of improve. But helping patients to understand why they need a given medication falls squarely on doctors and pharmas.

Its a good crystal ball look into what really impedes patients. Maybe by working on intelligent and comprehensive approaches to eliminating just this one barrier, we stand a much improved chance of fixing them all.