We wanted to see if they formed any socially
or clinically identifiable group, but, apart from
there being more adolescents than would be
expected by chance, and also that most had
been receiving treatment for over a year (both
previously suggested risk factors for
non-compliance4
), they were hard to categorise.
In a previous regional study we noted an
excess of children with Asian family names in a
group of 32 children with inappropriately low
metabolite levels,5 but only one of the nine
children in this study was Asian. As for
outcome, only two of the nine children had
relapsed at the time of the study, though the
numbers are too small and follow up too short
for any conclusions to be drawn from this,
except that they must have taken some of their
drug some of the time. It may be the duration
rather than the degree of non-compliance that
is important, with persistent partial defaulters
being more at risk than the occasional total
abstainer.