Compliance and supervision of chemotherapy of tuberculosis.

In accepting responsibility for the treatment of clinically active tuberculosis, a physician assumes the additional duty of insuring that the patient completes a full course of treatment. Chemical quarantine through adequate treatment requires close cooperation between the physician and the public health department. Patient noncompliance with treatment is a well recognized fact; however, the extent to which patients will go to mislead their physician is just becoming known. Traditional health education and medication labeling methods appear to be ineffective in changing behavior. Cultural influences are significant and must be understood by the treating physician. When incentives, enablers, medication monitors, and chemotherapeutic regimens that permit the direct administration of medication are combined with an effective patient-physician relationship, a wide range of opportunities become available for maximizing patient compliance with treatment.