Central Nervous System

Medication compliance in mental health for improved treatment outcome

Good health is defined as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. Lack of debilitating physical symptoms alone doesn’t necessarily mean sound health. Although the focus on mental health is growing, the global efforts to remedy them have remained insufficient1. Mental health conditions include various mental and neurological disorders, substance-abuse behavior, suicidal tendencies as…

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Severe psychiatric disorders: causes & interventions for medication non-adherence

The key challenges to medication adherence for patients with severe psychotic disorders include -medication side effects, complexity, and duration as well as patient’s insights, beliefs, social stigma, and lack of support1. Psychoeducation, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and motivational interviewing are the typically used strategies to improve adherence2. The digital medicine system is a novel and…

Central Nervous System

How do PSPs impact adherence?

Non-adherence is a major issue that can be addressed by PSPs Non-adherence impedes patients from benefiting from the clinical promise of their treatment. Medications that have proven their potential in clinical trials may not deliver on that potential in the real world, potentially because of non-adherence.1 The numbers speak for themselves: average adherence rates for…

Central Nervous System

“Personalizing” adherence support with Patient Support Programs

Patient Support Programs are behavioral interventions for improving adherence Non-adherence to therapies in neurological conditions is a significant issue, associated with worse clinical outcomes and increased healthcare utilization and costs.1 There are many factors involved, including complexity of medication regimens, depression, gender, and duration of disease that may lead to a patient being non-adherent,2,3 therefore,…

Central Nervous System

Activating patients to improve adherence

Measures and survey tools are useful for characterizing patient health behavior Chronic diseases are a global public health issue and are increasing in prevalence and associated costs. These conditions require significant self-management by patients, including adherence to therapy regimens and medication.1 Adherence to epilepsy medication is associated with improved control of symptoms; however, non-adherence is…

Central Nervous System

The Behavior Change Wheel: A framework for improving adherence

Improving patient outcomes and adherence requires an actionable framework Previous articles in this series demonstrate that non-adherence is a significant public health issue in patients with neurologic disease. A study conducted in Europe in 2004 estimated that the annual economic cost of neurological disease (including dementia, epilepsy, migraine and other headaches, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease…

Central Nervous System

The Transtheoretical Model and the “stages” of patient adherence

The Transtheoretical Model: a tool for influencing positive behavioral change Neurological disorders are a significant public health issue worldwide.1 Non-adherence to therapy for these conditions results in poor response to therapy, impacts on the quality of life of patients and causes associated costs to them and healthcare systems.2,3 Non-adherence rates have been shown to be…

Central Nervous System