Escuela de Educación, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile.
Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 16;15(4):e0231578. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231578. eCollection 2020.
Adherence to treatment is a crucial factor for patients who have chronic illnesses or multiple morbidities and polypharmacy, which is frequently found in older adults. The non-adherence to medications has important economic and social consequences as well as impacts on the health of the patients. One of the reasons that can explain the low adherence to treatment, is the memory deficits that are characteristics of this population and that are even more evident in cases that involve neurodegenerative diseases.
In this study, we explore whether the differential outcomes procedure (DOP), which has been shown to be useful in improving discriminative learning and memory in different populations, may facilitate learning and retention of medical recommendations in older adults who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The results demonstrate that when this procedure was applied, the patients showed improvements in learning and long-term retention of two pill/time of day associations in a situation that simulates adherence to medical prescriptions.
These findings contribute new data about the potential benefits of the DOP in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, highlighting the important role that this procedure could play in addressing important issues related to the health and quality of life of older adults, with or without neurodegenerative diseases, such as low adherence to medical treatments.
对于患有慢性病或多种合并症和多种药物治疗的患者，即老年人，坚持治疗是一个关键因素。药物不依从会产生重要的经济和社会后果，也会对患者的健康产生影响。导致治疗不依从的原因之一是该人群存在记忆缺陷，而在涉及神经退行性疾病的情况下，这种缺陷更为明显。
在这项研究中，我们探讨了差异结果程序（DOP）是否可以改善患有阿尔茨海默病的老年人对医疗建议的学习和保持。结果表明，当应用该程序时，患者在模拟遵守医嘱的情况下，在学习和长期保留两种每日两次服药的关联方面均有所改善。
这些发现为 DOP 在神经退行性疾病患者中的潜在益处提供了新的数据，强调了该程序在解决与老年人健康和生活质量相关的重要问题方面可能发挥的重要作用，无论他们是否患有神经退行性疾病，例如对医疗治疗的低依从性。
