Numerous studies have found high rates of nonadherence for various medications; in one study, between 40% and 50% of patients with prescribed therapies for chronic conditions don’t adhere to their regimens. People don’t start or refill prescribed medications for multiple reasons, including cost barriers and a reluctance to take drugs that reinforces sickness.
“People think they are doing fine, so they don’t need the medicine,” Corrine Voils, PhD, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies medicine compliance, told the Times.
This isn’t true for Wegovy and other new weight loss medications.
“Compliance is exceptional,” Diana Thiara, MD, medical director of UCSF Health’s weight management program in San Francisco, told the Times. “People take it. They ask for refills. They take it on trips.”
Kimberly DelRosso of Pembroke, Mass., told the Times she often skipped her blood pressure pills. She now faithfully takes Wegovy, which helped her achieve a weight where she no longer needs blood pressure medication.
The anti-obesity drugs can be difficult to obtain because of high costs, lack of payer coverage and supply shortages, and physicians have long wondered about the cost-benefit ratio between lifelong injections versus surgery. Nevertheless, physicians say they are noticing their patients intend to take these new weight loss medications forever — bucking the nonadherence trend that befalls other treatments.
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