[Medication adherence in patients with chronic diseases: significance and new approaches].

Many patients post stroke or with other chronic diseases do not continue to take their evidence-based medication. Patients with reduced medication adherence are characterized by increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The number of elderly individuals with chronic conditions requiring polypharmacy will continue to increase. The following strategies are discussed to enhance adherence: individual advice and continuous counselling of the patients and the caregivers, individualized pharmacotherapy, and medication management including combination pills and unit doses. Medication adherence represents a field of research with increasing importance for patient outcomes and healthcare costs. Measures to improve adherence may be equally important to the development of novel drugs. However, prospective clinical studies evaluating the effects of the proposed interventions on clinical endpoints are rare and therefore evidence-based recommendations are missing.