'Why don't you do as I tell you?' Compliance and antihypertensive regimens

Abstract

Although hypertension is recognised as one of the major health hazards in the developed world, compliance with antihypertensive regimens is still undesirably low. This brings important costs, both to patients in increased morbidity and mortality, and to society in hospitalisations and lost productivity. This review surveys possible reasons for non-compliance with treatments generally and antihypertensive medications specifically. It also looks at how insights into reasons for non-compliance can help us design more effective treatments, and discusses current and emerging medications in the context of compliance. As one of the reasons for low compliance is thought to be the impact of a drug on the patient's lifestyle, recently developed agents such as angiotensin II-receptor blockers may be expected to have less effect on patients' daily lives than earlier treatments, which brings hope for increased compliance with these regimens.