adherers

Another possibility is that the adherers were the ones who had good doctors who they visited regularly and who kept them generally healthier.

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

This last point suggests another: Perhaps the adherers were the patients who were sufficiently scared by their recent bad health that they became determined enough to change their lifestyles, while th others were not.

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

“In this case, the adherers know their adhering while the non-adherers know they're not.”

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

My guess is that many of these ‘non adherers’ who dropped out because of side effects were really ‘adherers’ by nature.

The adherer effect | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

So there is something about adherers to a drug regimen that promotes longevity as compared to non-adherers.

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

But, as we saw above, adherers always have better all-cause mortality than non-adherers.

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

Only 15 percent of these faithful “adherers” died, compared with almost 25 percent of what the project researchers called “poor adherers.

The adherer effect | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

The researchers were looking to see which subjects – the adherers or the non-adherers – would develop problems that had nothing to do with the statin drugs.

The adherer effect | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

In this study, those who dropped out of their statin regimen because of intolerable side effects would be considered to be less adherent or non adherers.

The adherer effect | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009

So, what we have here where the drug is known from better trials not to work is that the adherers in both arms see the benefit of the placebo effect.

More statin madness | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009