DiMatteo did a study on patients suffering from anxiety and depression and if their levels of adherence to medical treatment was affected by it. Studies were examined about depressed and anxious patients and how well they adhered. These studies showed that there was no correlation between anxiety and non-adherence but strong correlation between depression and non-adherence. Therefore depressed patients are far less likely to adhere to a medical regime which has been prescribed for them.
Kent and Dalgleish studied parents whose children had been prescribed a course of medical regime. They claimed that perceived seriousness of illness of the mother was more important than that of the doctors. This meant that mothers who felt their children were more susceptible to illness were more likely to adhere to a medical regime set out by the doctor, and attend the appointments made than those mothers who had a different outlook to their child’s illness than the doctor so stops treatment when she thinks is best.
b) Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about adherence to medical advice.
Adherence to medical advice is a difficult concept to measure and although many studies have been carried out on it, it may be impossible to determine completely valid reasoning behind non-adherence.
Communication can be a difficult issue when dealing with adherence. This can include such problems as language (medical or cultural), understanding or even body language between patient and practitioner. Medical language can cause barriers between doctor and patient, many patients cannot understand doctors when they use medical jargon so this may affect adherence as patients do not fully understand their own problems.
Bourhis studied the medical language used between health professionals and their patients. He used written questionnaires about medical language and everyday language in the hospital setting which were filled out by the patients. From this he drew that doctors used medical language as a way of maintaining their status and that nurses acted as a go-between for patients and doctors. Everyday language was found to have better use with patients and medical language often led to confusion. Therefore, communication can have an effect on patient understanding if there is no ‘communication broker’, I.e. the nurse.
Also, demand characteristics can apply when testing adherence as observation of patients when taking medication is difficult and asking patients may prove inaccurate. Choo found that when bottles of medication were electronically tagged, patients were far more likely to take their medication, however, it is difficult to know whether this is because they know they are being tagged, or that they would adhere anyway. Therefore, adherence is far more likely if patients think they are being recorded. However, this may be unethical as it can infringe a persons private routine or that they are being mislead if they are told they are being recorded, when in fact, they are not.
Lustman studied adherence in patients suffering from anxiety and depression. To see that if medical disorders may affect a persons adherence. This study showed that depressed patients who were diabetic whom were given medication for diabetes, were far more likely to adhere than those suffering from anxiety. It may be concluded from this that if an illness can be overcome, patients are more likely to adhere as they feel better generally. However, with this study it may be considered unethical to study people already suffering from mental disorders as it may cause them to become more anxious or unstable. Also, some of these studies may be seen as unrepresentitative as most were only carried out in one particular area at a certain time, therefore causing bias. This results in the findings being unreliable and not valid.
