Patients who are medication-naïve have a higher risk of discontinuation during the first 30 days of therapy than medication-experienced patients regardless of the drug class prescribed, a new study has found.
The study, published in Clinical Therapeutics, analysed data from 2.17 million patients who received prescriptions from 3,821 pharmacies in the US.
It found that during the first 30 days of therapy, rates of discontinuation for medication-naïve patients were 17.4 per cent to 42.6 per cent higher than for medication-experienced patients.
Patients prescribed non-oral medication for diabetes mellitus (insulin), asthma (inhalers), and glaucoma (drops) had an especially high risk of discontinuation during the first month of treatment.
Those taking cardiovascular agents, oral antidiabetic agents, and statins faced the lowest relative risk of discontinuation.
For medication naïve patients, the risk of discontinuation during the first 30 days of treatment was roughly 12 times greater than during subsequent months.
"Such findings underscore the need for health care professionals to better engage and more closely follow medicaton-naïve patients during the first 30 days of therapy regardless of the medication class prescribed," the authors wrote.
The researchers also found that younger age but not income, copayment amounts or gender, was consistently associated with a greater risk of discontinuation.
"We suspect that patients may be more willing to continue taking medication once they gain experience with their illness and treatment," the authors wrote.
"Over time, patients may develop a learning curve with respect to the management of their illness and medication. As they do, lower rates of discontinuation may ensue."
They said further studies were needed to understand the patient experiences and clinical interventions that facilitate sustained medication use.