Adherence in dermatology: a review of the last 20 years.

Background: Adherence has been studied in many areas of medicine; however, there are few published articles pertaining to adherence and dermatology.

Objective: The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature on medical adherence as it specifically applies to dermatology.

Methods: We conducted a PUBMED search between the years of 1985 and 2005 using the following terms: 1-[adherence AND dermatology] and 2-[dermatology AND treatment].