Better HIV Treatment Taking

posted: 29/06/2010

Researchers at the London School of Pharmacy have started a £2 million programme to improve how people take HIV treatments. They found out earlier that within six months of starting HIV treatment, more than one third of people were not taking HIV treatments properly.

Taking HIV treatments properly is tough for some people. For HIV treatments to work properly, you need to take all your HIV medicines at the right time, and every day. Missing doses means HIV will become drug resistant and the treatment will stop working properly.
 

The pharmacists are keen not to blame people for not taking HIV treatments properly, and instead want to understand things from the point of view of the person taking them, and find ways to give better support to each person.
 

Lead researcher, Rob Horne said “Health practitioners have a duty to facilitate informed choice about ART and to support optimal adherence in the long term. This research programme will provide an evidence base to help clinicians do this,” Professor Horne added. Pharmacists already know that not taking treatments everyday seems to make sense to people who don’t have any symptoms, or who want to avoid side effects, or when people are worried that the drugs may cause harm, or make you dependant.
 

They also hope this 5 year study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, will help pharmacists improve treatment taking by people with several other long-term conditions, including asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, bipolar disorder, chronic kidney disease, renal transplant and epilepsy.
 

Treatment taking information and help

If you want more information about taking HIV drugs properly NAM have a useful booklet called adherence and resistance that you can download free and iBase also have useful guides here
If you want to talk about this with one of our advisers, please call 0161 274 4499 or email an adviser

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