Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
For clinicians, primary care physicians (PCPs), and other health professionals treating patients with any ailment, including depression, the first task in addressing nonadherence to treatment is to detect it. Patients conceal treatment nonadherence because it is a socially undesirable behavior, and patients want their clinicians or PCPs to think that they are “good” patients. They may hope that their clinicians will be understanding, but assume that clinicians will adopt a judgmental attitude. There is evidence that, as a result of these psychological barriers, self-report and physician interview assessments have poor correlation with adherence as measured by virtually any other methodology. Three studies have been conducted that dramatically indicate the force of this need to conceal nonadherence.