(ThyBlackMan.com) Forty to fifty per cent of patients with chronic illnesses do not adhere to medical prescriptions. If you have ever been under medication, you know just how hard it is to keep that little task in mind.
Elderly people have an even harder time sticking to prescriptions. Without a pill dispenser, they miss doses, overdose, underdose or altogether fail to take the pills which can have dire consequences.
Effects of Medication Non-adherence
People tend to be careless especially with medications that treat silent illnesses such as heart conditions. It leads to the progression of the illness and complications arise that call for further costly treatments.
Diseases such as tuberculosis require strict adherence to the dose which should be taken at the exact time every day. Non-adherence can cause a relapse of the illness, treatment failure, and death.
Failure to follow prescriptions can lead to drug resistance mutations which become harder or impossible to treat with regular drugs. Non-adherence to antibiotics, for instance, leads to survival of some drug-resistant bacteria which multiply and cause reoccurrence of the infection.
Some medication is designed to prevent comorbidity, which is the existence of one or more conditions that occur alongside the primary illness, but the medicine only works when taken as prescribed.
Circumstances that Demand a Pill Dispenser
A pill dispenser is beneficial to anyone under medication, but in these cases, it’s undebatable.
1) In the case of cognitive impairment
Individuals with problems with their mental functions such as poor memory, trouble learning, or inability to make decisions, whether mild or severe, should have a medicine dispenser. It can alert them when it’s time to take the pill and dispense the right prescription.
2) Depressed patients
Most patients of chronic illnesses such as heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure experience depression. Such people when discharged are in no state of mind to follow the doctor’s prescription.
3)The uneducated and visually impaired
An uneducated patient who cannot read the label on the pill bottle may need help with following the prescription. The device makes it easier for their loved ones who simply have to refill the automatic dispenser, and the patient is sorted. The same applies to a blind patient.
4)Older adults living alone
As one gets older, health complications become common. For an elderly person leaving alone, they may have a hard time remembering prescriptions. Rather than hire a nurse, a dispenser can come in handy.
5) In case of complex prescriptions
Some medical prescriptions are just too complicated and it’s easy to make an error that can lead to additional health problems. A nurse or pharmacist can help fill the dispenser making everything easier.
A doctor’s consultation does not heal your condition, the medicine does. If the medication is not taken as prescribed, your condition only gets worse leading to complications, more costly treatments, and possibly death.
Elderly people living alone, the illiterate, and people of unhealthy mental states would benefit greatly from a pill dispenser, so are patients with complicated prescriptions.
All in all, a dispenser is a worthy purchase for anyone under medication.
Staff Writer; Roy Poole