A medication monitor and fluorescein technique designed to study medication behaviour

Methods were developed to study medication behaviour, in order to obtain accurate and detailed information on the patterns of drug-taking in medication with eye drops. A medication monitor was designed, which recorded the date and hour each time the medication bottle was opened. A fluorescein technique was designed to study the ability of patients to administer the eye drops into the conjunctival sac. Some problems in the measurement of medication behaviour are discussed. In a group of patients with open-angle glaucoma, for whom pilocarpine eye drops three times daily had been prescribed, 18% of dose intervals had a duration of 12 h or more and 11% had a duration of 4 h or less. Fluorescein tests indicated that the patients were usually able to administer the eye drops correctly.