The difference between prescribed and dispensed medicines in Sweden has been determined for the 20 most common diagnoses for all outpatients. For all diagnoses together, the value of dispensed medicines was 14% lower than for those prescribed. For some diagnoses a considerable number of the prescriptions never appeared at the pharmacies, for example, climactic symtoms—48%, allergic rhinitis—42%, glaucoma— 41%, and diabetes—39%. If the doctors intended that the medicines prescribed should also be consumed by the patients in order to obtain appropriate treatment, these data indicate that considerable undertreatment occurs for patients with certain diagnoses.
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