Editorial: Improving Medication Adherence - A Pharmacist’s Social Responsibility.

Abstract

It is undeniable that drugs do not work on their own. They do not have brains! How then do we achieve the intended goals of drug therapy? In order to achieve desired drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) outcomes adequate drug concentration must be attained at the site of action that is both effective and safe. However, we all know that there are pharmacokinetic challenges including absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion processes which exhibit inter- and intra-patient variability that leads to inconsistent pharmacotherapy outcomes. Additionally, it is also known that there can be significant variability in pharmacologic responses among individual patients despite accounting for variation in tissue concentrations. It is, therefore, imperative that drug regimens must be individualized for attainment of desired pharmacotherapy outcomes.