• Choice of treatment. Get all the information on what you will need to do before you start treatment:
  • How many tablets? How big are they?
  • How often do you need to take them?
  • How exact do you have to be with timing?
  • Are there food or storage restrictions?
  • Can they be taken with any other medicines you need?
  • Are there easier choices?
• Use a daily chart to plan your timetable and use it to get used to the routine. For the first few weeks mark off each dose and the time that you took it.
• Make sure that you contact your hospital or clinic if you have difficulties with side effects. They can prescribe additional medicines to help, or change the treatment.
• Divide up your day’s drugs each morning and use a pillbox. Then you can always check if you think you have missed a dose.
• Use a pill beeper or alarm watch. Use it for both morning and evening doses.
• Take extra drugs if you go away for a few days.
• Keep a small supply where you may need them in an emergency. This can be in a cool place in your car, at work or at a friend’s house.
• Get friends to help you remember difficult dose times. Ask them to remind you when you are out at night.
• Ask friends who are already on treatment what they do. Ask them how well they are managing. Ask your treatment centres if you can talk to someone who is already taking the same treatment if you think this will help.
• Before you start treatment, ask your doctor for a supply of medications to control nausea and diarrhoea. These side effects are the most common when starting therapy.
• Most combinations have twice-daily schedules. This means taking them every 12 hours. Some drugs only need to be taken once a day. This means taking them every 24 hours.
• Completely missing a once-daily dose may be more serious than forgetting a dose from a twice-daily combination, because there is a longer period when your drug levels are too low. Adherence is especially important with once a daily combinations.

Adherence diary from the i-Base Introduction to Combination Therapy.