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Use of a pharmacologic indicator to compare compliance with tablets prescribed to be taken once, twice, or three times daily
Author(s) -
Pullar T,
Birtwell A J,
Wiles P G,
Hay A,
Feely M P
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1038/clpt.1988.191
Subject(s) - dosing , medicine , regimen , phenobarbital , dose , compliance (psychology) , anesthesia , patient compliance , emergency medicine , psychology , social psychology
By use of an interview, return tablet count, and a pharmacologic indicator (low‐dose phenobarbital), we compared compliance with tablets prescribed to be taken once, twice, or three times daily. One hundred seventy‐nine patients with type II diabetes were randomly allocated to take one 2 mg phenobarbital tablet once, twice, or three times daily for 28 days. Phenobarbital level/dose ratios indicated that compliance was similar with once‐ and twice‐daily regimens, and both were better than thrice‐daily dosing. Mean return tablet counts suggested that compliance was best with the once‐daily regimen; both twice‐ and thrice‐daily regimens were similarly inferior. This difference between the techniques may be explained by the inadequacies of the residual tablet count, which identified only 13% of cases identified by phenobarbital. We conclude that compliance with the once‐daily regimen was best, but that compliance with a twice‐daily regimen was very similar, and both were superior to dosing three times a day. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1988) 44, 540–545; doi: 10.1038/clpt.1988.191