Vytorin Newsroom

Prescription Drug Compliance a Significant Challenge for Many Patients, According to New National Survey

Rochester, N.Y., March 29 -- One in three (33%) U.S. adults who have been prescribed drugs to take on a regular basis report that they are often or very often noncompliant with their treatment regimens for any number of reasons. Furthermore, nearly half (45%) say they have failed to take their medications because of concerns they had about the drugs themselves, and 43 percent report having not complied with their regimens because they felt the drug was unnecessary.
These are some of the results of a Harris Interactive® online survey of 2,507 U.S. adults who are online conducted between March 16 and 18, 2005 for The Wall Street Journal Online's Health Industry Edition.

Of the 63 percent of adults who have had prescription drugs prescribed to them in the last year, drugs which are to be taken regularly, nearly two- thirds (64%) report that they have simply forgotten to take their medication, with 11 percent saying that this has happened "often" or "very often." Other top reasons respondents cited for noncompliance with their treatment regimens include:

     * I had no symptoms or the symptoms went away (36%);
     * I wanted to save money (35%);
     * I didn't believe the drugs were effective (33%);
     * I didn't think I needed to take them (31%);
     * I had painful or frightening side effects (28%); and
     * The drugs prevented me from doing other things I wanted to do (25%).

"Compliance problems are rampant for reasons that are multitudinous and varied," states Katherine Binns, senior vice president of healthcare research at Harris Interactive. "These barriers leading to noncompliance present significant challenges to physicians and the U.S. healthcare system as a whole that will be difficult to address."