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Primary nonadherence to medications is defined as never filling a prescription; secondary nonadherence is defined as filling a prescription but not taking the medication as prescribed. In this study from Quebec, Canada, researchers evaluated the incidence and characteristics of primary nonadherence (failing to fill a new prescription within 9 months) using pharmaceutical data covering more than 15,000 patients who received about 37,000 new prescriptions from 131 primary care physicians in 2006 to 2009.
Overall, 31% of new prescriptions were not filled within 9 months. About half of prescriptions for headache or ischemic heart disease medications and a third of prescriptions for depression medications were never filled; in contrast, only abou…