White Coat Adherence

One of the questions I always have is about the white coat adherence - i.e. before you go to the dentist you floss like mad for two days and when she asks, you say, "Oh, of course I floss everyday". Your dentist knows if you floss or not. Just like your doctor knows if you have been taking your cholesterol drugs or not. Your blood test won't lie for you.

I admit that if you do not have any apparent symptoms you will forget to take your medication from time to time or you will stop taking your antibiotics once the infection has gone away - but you need to stay on that medication for a reason. For it's full run. Or ask your doctor.

Unfortunately I have been very noncompliant (it doesn't sound as good as naughty) with a script I filled for Lamacil. I can't take it due to another medication and its possible side effects on my liver, but it was prescribed to me. I did fill it. It is sitting in my drawer with my other medications. The results of not taking it are very apparent. So I am not going to say I have been taking it, I'm just going to wait til my tests come back and she says I can take it. BUT it could end up like 70% of all medication in America and not be consumed.

Off topic, but I wanted to include a couple of facts from Dr. H. Gottlieb's report (thanks to Jen Milman from the Healthcare Intelligence Network for the info):
40 to 60% of patients could not correctly report medication expectations 10 to 80 minutes after physicians provided information, AND
More than 60% of patients misunderstood prescription directions immediately after doctor visits.

I think that is astounding. How can this be corrected?