IN MY SURGERY: TAKE YOUR MEDICINE
With all the recent publicity around NHS
spending, I was struck by a survey from online pharmacy Pharmacy2u that shows almost half of Brits regularly forget to take their medication. One in three respondents had stopped altogether when they developed side-effects, and one in five didn’t even start taking their medication when they read about possible side-effects.
Where the younger generation are concerned, more than one in six stopped medication early when it affected socialising and more than one in five because they wanted to drink alcohol.
The cost of ‘non-adherence’ isn’t just financial – although it’s estimated at nearly £113bn (€125bn) a year across Europe. It also costs lives, with up to 20,000 people dying early every year in the UK as a direct result of not taking regular medication as they should.
Remember, we doctors prescribe medication for a reason. Most side-effects affect only a tiny proportion of people and need to be weighed against the risks of not taking it. If in doubt, ask
your pharmacist.