Improvement of Blood Pressure Control by Adherence Check in Patients With Apparent Treatment-Resistant Hypertension: A Case Series

Adherence to medications is an important challenge while treating chronic disease such as resistant hypertension, which is defined as uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) despite treatment with more than 3 antihypertensive drugs to achieve targets. It is possible that poor adherence is the most significant contributor to rates of pseudo-resistance among treated hypertensive patients. In this report, we describe 4 patients with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension, who received intervention to promote adherence by pharmacists who set the prescribed medicines in a weekly medication calendar and conducted a weekly pill count. The results showed that the intervention of pharmacists to medication adherence improved systolic BP in patients with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension; however, further controlled trials are required to strengthen supporting evidence.