The Role of Adherence in Pharmaceutical Care

Abstract

Optimal adherence is often a prerequisite for medication effectiveness and safety. Maximising medication adherence is one of the core activities of the pharmacist when providing pharmaceutical care. This chapter starts by defining and carefully framing medication adherence and placing the different terms and phases of the “patient-medicine relationship” into context. It then provides an overview of the factors that impact on medication adherence, the methods available to measure adherence, and above all, the ways through which practitioners may detect medication non-adherence in daily practice. A list of interventions intended to foster adherence is presented, with their categorisation, together with their pros and cons for development and implementation in daily practice, highlighting those where there is more experience or evidence of success.