Almost one-third of people have stopped taking a prescription drug at some time without telling their health care provider, according to the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll.
And while cost certainly influences whether and how people take their drugs, only 10 percent of people in this poll cited it as the reason for their behavior. A separate question asked people who filled a prescription recently whether they missed at least one dose. A full quarter said they had.
The related problems of quitting a drug without consultation with a doctor, missing doses and even not filling the prescription in the first place fall under the umbrella of medication non-adherence. About half of medications for chronic disease aren't taken as directed, according to a review published in 2012 in Annals of Internal Medicine.The problem has been estimated to result in increased hospitalizations, more premature deaths and a tab of between $100 billion and $289 billion a year.
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3 comments:
Side effects.
I quit taking mine for high blood pressure and cholesterol. They didn't make me feel any better and were expensive. I just stopped eating like a pig and get up early and walk and do they same after work and actually feel the effects of that. I never liked the idea of taking and paying for pills not even a patent pain reliever. Our elders worked harder than we ever did seldom complained and took pills. Granted they did not live into their 90's but who wants to. A life of hard work is painful and full of indignities and ailments and nobody gets out alive so why waste money. Eat sparingly and get up and move and have distracting interests that make you happier. We have become a nation of big fat diapered angry butt hurt babies with our politics and assumed slights of rights and piece of the pie and everyone is suckling at the pharmaceutical TEET crying malaise when perhaps instead of feeling like victims we should embrace what health and family we have and get on with our short lives. How rich do you need to be ? How right do you need to feel ? How vindicated will any of us be rotting in our graves ?
Bingo! Side effects I believe is right there with $$. Is for me.
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