\u201cAntidepressant adherence is challenging for patients of any age, but older age is a characteristic that is associated with worse adherence,\u201d<\/em> said Dr. Donovan Maust, a psychiatry researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who wasn\u2019t involved in the study.<\/p>\n Patients in the study tended to do a better job of starting and continuing on medication as prescribed when they were already accustomed to taking multiple daily pills for a variety of other chronic health issues, the study found.<\/p>\n People already on lots of other drugs were 11 percent less likely to fail to start antidepressants and 13 percent less likely to take them inconsistently, the study found.<\/p>\n Some antidepressants have side effects like weight gain and sexual dysfunction that also might have prompted some patients to stop taking their drugs.<\/strong><\/p>\n People who experienced side effects were 22 percent more likely take antidepressants inconsistently or stop altogether, the study found.<\/p>\n Individuals with other psychological disorders were 59 percent more likely to take antidepressants inconsistently or stop altogether, the study also found.<\/p>\n The study wasn\u2019t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how being diagnosed or treated by a primary care provider might directly impact the chances of patients taking antidepressants as directed.<\/p>\n Another limitation is that researchers lacked data on why patients didn\u2019t fill prescriptions or didn\u2019t keep taking drugs as directed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible some people with mild depression felt better without medication, for example, or that some people started cutting back on doses to gradually taper off their antidepressants before stopping altogether.<\/p>\n Lead study author Floor Holvast of the University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIn some of these cases it may be the patient and physician or clinician decided to<\/em>gether that the patient should stop,\u201d<\/em> Maust said.<\/p>\n But patients should not stop on their own, Maust cautioned.<\/p>\n Source: REUTERS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Older adults who are prescribed medication for depression by primary care physicians often fail to start taking these drugs or to continue…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-service-advice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Many](\"https:\/\/www.pharmamanage.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/images_Many_Older_Adults_Dont_Take_Prescribed_Antidepressants_P1.jpg\" "\\"Prescribed")
<\/p>\n