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Medication Nonadherence in the Geriatric Psychiatric Population: Do Seniors Take Their Pills?

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Psychiatric Nonadherence

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Abstract

The nonadherence rate to psychiatric medications among the geriatric patient population is estimated to be similar to that in the younger adult population, around 50%. Contributing factors to psychotropic medication nonadherence include patient-specific risk factors (for example, illness beliefs and cognitive function), drug-specific factors (for example, adverse effects and cost), as well as social factors (e.g., family support). Randomized controlled trials on geriatric adherence to psychiatric medications are scarce. We propose strategies that are better adapted to the geriatric population to improve medication adherence.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Barnett Meyers for his assistance with this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

    Yun Freudenberg-Hua, Ryan Kaufman, Antonia Alafris, Sukriti Mittal, Neil Kremen & Erika Jakobson

  2. Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA

    Yun Freudenberg-Hua

  3. Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA

    Yun Freudenberg-Hua

  4. Psychiatry Residency Program, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA

    Ryan Kaufman

  5. Pharmacy and Clinical Services (Behavioral Health), Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA

    Antonia Alafris

  6. Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA

    Sukriti Mittal, Neil Kremen & Erika Jakobson

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  1. Yun Freudenberg-Hua
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  2. Ryan Kaufman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yun Freudenberg-Hua .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

    Victor Fornari

  2. Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

    Ida Dancyger

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Freudenberg-Hua, Y., Kaufman, R., Alafris, A., Mittal, S., Kremen, N., Jakobson, E. (2019). Medication Nonadherence in the Geriatric Psychiatric Population: Do Seniors Take Their Pills?. In: Fornari, V., Dancyger, I. (eds) Psychiatric Nonadherence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12665-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12665-0_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12664-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12665-0

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