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Depression: Treatment compliance in general practice
Author(s) -
Johnson D. A. W.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1981.tb00751.x
Subject(s) - medicine , compliance (psychology) , medical prescription , anticholinergic , depression (economics) , psychiatry , mental illness , drug compliance , patient compliance , regimen , drug treatment , family medicine , mental health , intensive care medicine , psychology , nursing , surgery , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
A survey of over two hundred patients attending fourteen family doctors in five different practices investigates the treatment in general practice of patients suffering from depressive illness. Medication was the principal treatment offered, but was often inadequate either because of prescription variables or because patients failed to comply with the treatment prescribed. The reasons for patient non‐compliance fell into three main categories (a) side effects, (b) attitudes to drugs, (c) patient ‐ doctor communication failure. It is suggested that a more extensive discussion of mental illness and its treatment is required as part of the total treatment of the individual, that the family doctor should take a more active role in the supervision of the treatment regimen, and that drugs with fewer side effects, particularly anticholinergic effects, are all required as essential measures to improve patient compliance with treatment.