What are the dangers of poor medication compliance?
I had a parent tell me the other day, “You can’t tell an adolescent to do anything.” And I disagreed. I said, “I think when there’s a life-threatening condition, we need to find a way to convince them to take their medication,” and they understood the gravity of the situation. Then we had a conversation with the adolescent and put it in their hands to control their own disease, to be responsible and be able to prove that they’ve done it. Are stories about role models helpful in getting the message to adolescents? When I speak to adolescents who may be denying their symptoms, or do not want to treat their symptoms, or think that treatment going to limit their life in any way, I talk about the fact that a large percentage of, for example, last year’s Olympic swim team has exercise-induced asthma. I do tell patients that I don’t expect that they will necessarily be Olympic qualifiers, but that I don’t expect their asthma to be an excuse for not living a full, active, fun life. I saw an ad
