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However, there are always patients who do not take the medicines that were prescribed to them, intentionally or not. In the field of medicine, these people are described as noncompliant.
When patients are described as noncompliant, doctors usually think that they would only cause trouble, a mindset that should be stopped.
According to an article from The New York Times, the branding is loaded with implications and stereotypes, a label that, unfortunately, tends to stick to the patients.
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This was backed up by a piece published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The author, Dr. John Steiner, notes that it is an immense oversimplification to base a patient’s compliance on whether he swallows a pill or not. He believes that there are numerous reasons why people forget to take their medicines.
For example, a patient, after receiving prescriptions from the doctor, may also be asked to cut down on certain food items, exercise three or four times a day, check his blood sugar, and go to doctors’ appointments. According to Dr. Steiner, remembering all of these can be difficult for some patients, making it difficult for them not to miss taking their meds on schedule.
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On that note, he also emphasized how important it is for doctors to take the time to know the situation of their patients.
“Be compassionate,” Dr. Steiner says to doctors. “Understand what a complicated balancing act it is for patients.”
Dr. Kamal Patel is an internist from Arlington Heights, Illinois. Get more updates about the healthcare industry, particularly on internal medicine, by visiting this Twitter page.
