Non‐compliance and its management in teenagers

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Abstract
Renal transplantation restores a patient's endogenous renal function. The benefits of this restoration are especially dramatic in children. However, transplantation is a complex and expensive therapy which, when successful, requires consistent adherence to a complex regimen of drug therapy and clinical follow‐up. Transplant medications need to be taken for a lifetime. Whilst very effective, immunosuppressant medications can also cause a number of side‐effects and require daily multi‐dose schedules. Teenagers, in particular, have problems adhering to these regimens and weighing the consequences of non‐compliance. Approaches to improving teenagers' compliance must address both the special circumstances of adolescence and the broad, general problem of post‐transplant non‐compliance.