PATIENTS who do not complete prescribed courses of treatments have caused major difficulty in health care, according to a leading psychiatrist.
Prof Patricia Casey of UCD; said up to 50 per cent of patients, suffering either medical or psychiatric illness, did not take medication as prescribed or stopped taking it before the course was completed.
"This is particularly problematic in relation to antidepressants which have a relatively long time lag before the positive effects are noticeable. The bulk of psychiatrists, I am sure, advise patients of this but it is often ignored when the effects are not immediate," she said.
Prof Casey was speaking at the inaugural a.g.m. of the Pharmaceutical Managers Institute in West port, Co Mayo, at the weekend.
The provision of written material to patients on compliance and the likely side effects of the products prescribed could help counteract this problem, she suggested.
For patients on medium to long term treatments such as lithium or major tranquillisers, she had the more radical advice that the health care industry should provide them with nurses in the early days of treatment after discharge from hospital.
Commenting on the public perception of psychiatrists, Prof Casey said: "First and foremost we are doctors, and as a profession, doctors are not liked.
"They are seen as arrogant, patronising, grey suited and rich. The problem is compounded for psychiatrists, by virtue of the fact that we are not counsellors in what has become a therapist filled culture.
"We are believed to have a penchant for frying people's brains with electric shocks, locking them up and then drugging them until they are nothing but shambling masses.
"Conversely, we are seen as pre occupied with laying people one couches to talk about sex. Hence, at parties, I am frequently accosted by people who ask if I and analysing them and who then proceed to tell me their dreams.
Prof Casey said the health care industry must present the profession as one with chemical and nonchemical treatments and which achieved results as positive as any other branch of medicine.