Overview
- Discusses the philosophical issues surrounding the notion of adherence to medical prescriptions and to healthy life, asking the question: why does one take care of one-self?
- Addresses the role of cognition, emotions and self-love in self-care
- Explores the relationship between adherence and willpower and between nonadherence and weakness of will
- Proposes the existence of a principle of foresight to explain how adherence is possible
- Provides a new insight on the patient-physician relationship, on the dilemma between the ethical principles of beneficence and autonomy, and on the meaning of patient education
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine (PHME, volume 118)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (10 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
How can we accept that we ought to stop smoking, follow a diet, exercise, or take medications? The goal of this book is to describe the mechanisms of patients’ adherence to long-term therapies, whose improvement, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), would be more beneficial than any biomedical progress. For example, approximately half of the patients do not regularly follow medical prescriptions, resulting in deleterious effects on people’s health and a strong impact on health expenditure. This book describes how our beliefs, desires, and emotions intervene in our choices concerning our health, by referring to concepts developed within the framework of the philosophy of mind. In particular, it tries to explain how we can choose between an immediate pleasure and a remote reward—preserving our health and our life. We postulate that such an “intertemporal” choice can be directed by a “principle of foresight” which leads us to give priority to the future. Just like patients’ non-adherence to prescribed medications, doctors often don’t always do what they should: They are non-adherent to good practice guidelines. We propose that what was recently de-scribed as “clinical inertia” could also represent a case of myopia: From time to time doctors fail to consider the long-term interests of their patient. Both patients’ non-adherence and doctors’ clinical inertia represent major barriers to the efficiency of care. However, it is also necessary to respect patients’ autonomy. The analysis of relationship between mind and care which is provided in this book sheds new light on the nature of the therapeutic alliance between doctor and patient, solving the dilemma between the ethical principles of beneficence and autonomy.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
The author is a diabetologist and Professor of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases at Paris 13 University. He has authored several books, including one published by Springer under the title: Clinical Inertia, A Critique of Medical Reason.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Mental Mechanisms of Patient Adherence to Long-Term Therapies
Book Subtitle: Mind and Care
Authors: Gérard Reach
Series Title: Philosophy and Medicine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12265-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-12264-9Published: 20 January 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-38541-9Published: 06 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-12265-6Published: 06 January 2015
Series ISSN: 0376-7418
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0080
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 207
Number of Illustrations: 23 b/w illustrations
Additional Information: Original French edition published by Le Bord de L'eau, Lormont, France, 2007
Topics: Philosophy of Medicine, Theory of Medicine/Bioethics