title: Adherence revisited: the patient's choice.
abstract: Adherence to treatment is an age-old issue in the health care provider-patient relationship. Although findings show that adherence has the potential to increase the efficacy of a treatment, is that the only consideration when examining the ethical questions surrounding adherence? What if the competent adult patient chooses not to adhere? The purpose of this paper is to examine the patient's choice to not adhere to a prescribed therapy. The author uses a hypothetical case as a way to identify and to challenge the assumptions underlying traditional adherence models.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Center for Bioethics and Health Law, University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. jae001@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Judith A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Erlen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010358:Patient Participation