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New research reveals that only half of patients take their medications as prescribed. Following prescription instructions are important because it is the best way for patients to get better.

The latest study involved data from 182 clinical trials on medication adherence and patient health. While many studies in the review were robust, researchers noted that there were no definitive winning solutions when it comes to getting patients to take medications as described.

"The studies varied so much in terms of their design and their results that it would have been misleading to try to come up with general conclusions," lead researcher Robby Nieuwlaat of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, said in a statement. "Based on this evidence, it is uncertain how adherence to medication can be consistently improved. We need to see larger and higher quality trials, which better take in account individual patient's problems with adherence."

"This review addresses one of the biggest challenges in health care," Dr. David Tovey, Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library, said in a university release. "It's a real surprise that the vast amount of research that has been done has not moved us further forward in our understanding of how to address this problem. With the costs of health care across the world increasing, we've never needed evidence to answer this question more than we do now."