While drugs are effective in treating psychiatric disorders, some patients have no or only a partial response to treatment. This affects not only the patient, but also the family and the professionals caring for that patient. The lack of response should be considered as a multifaceted problem, involving variables inherent to the illness itself, as well as those relating to the patient and psychosocial factors. Although Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical it may seem very basic, one of the main factors to be considered when evaluating a patient responding poorly to treatment is the way in which the treatment is being carried out. There are two concepts related to the way in which treatment is carried out: compliance and adherence.

Compliance includes many Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical variables, but refers mainly to the degree to which patients follow physicians’ instructions (primarily the number of pills taken daily according to the schedule prescribed). For many authors, compliance is a passive behavior on the part of the patient. In contrast, FHPI purchase adherence implies active behavior in which a patient’s beliefs with respect to mental illness and drugs are key to the decision of whether to cooperate voluntarily with the treatment regimen.1,2 In most psychiatric cases, patients with the freedom to do so choose professionals who have the same ideas as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical themselves, which should increase likelihood

of adhering to the prescriptions. However, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in a group of patients in primary health care, suffering from dysthymia and mild depression, it was found that their beliefs did not predict a greater adherence to treatment, and even that the individuals who did not consider depression to be a biological illness responded best to antidepressants.3 Noncompliance in self-administered treatment is frequent, especially in long-term therapy,

when compliance can be as low as 50%. In cases of antibiotic treatment for acute infections, compliance is 75% at the beginning of treatment, but drops to 25% at the end of the regimen.4 In addition, compliance and adherence are frequently overestimated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and, consequently, when a patient responds poorly to treatment, these variables are rarely considered responsible for the result.1 Overdosage, underdosage, or taking medication at erratic intervals can bring on adverse effects and make treatment ineffective. Noncompliance is associated with poor clinical evolution. The ideal combination is compliance and successful treatment; this situation Thalidomide should bring about a “virtuous circle” to help maintain long-term treatment. However, there are times when a patient has a high level of compliance, but treatment is only partially successful, in which case the diagnosis and/or treatment must be reevaluated. An issue worthy of further research is the compliance threshold necessary for obtaining an acceptable response to therapy. Compliance depends on numerous factors.