Emotional Support as Strategy

According to Jen Butler, CCO at Pleio, researchers are beginning to connect emotional well-being to medication behavior, finding that loneliness can directly undermine treatment consistency and overall outcomes. In one study of over 2,000 chronically ill patients, those who reported feelings of loneliness were significantly more likely to experience poor adherence. Two-thirds said their diagnosis made them feel lonelier than before, highlighting how chronic illness often intensifies emotional isolation.

This growing awareness points to the need for a more holistic, patient-centered approach that goes beyond traditional access solutions. Addressing loneliness, enhancing emotional connection, and streamlining provider workflows are becoming integral to improving adherence and outcomes. Experts suggest that fostering trust and communication, both between patients and providers and within broader care ecosystems, will be key to reducing barriers and achieving meaningful health improvements in an increasingly complex specialty drug landscape.

A transcript of her conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: Why should pharma leaders view emotional support as a business-critical component of adherence strategies, rather than just a “nice to have”?

Butler: Pharma leaders, you put so much of your budget into patient acquisition, and rightfully so, but if you're going to invest behind patient acquisition, you also want to make sure you're investing in sustainability and maintenance of and maintaining patients on treatment—otherwise known as your ROI—and that's really where a lot of our programs come in, in looking and supporting patients through the onboarding process.

You get that patient, you want to make sure they are understanding and supported to be able to bring that treatment to fruition, and addressing the emotional support and barriers is actually helping them get to the other investments that are made around co-pay programs, health coaches, digital support, and patients just aren't aware of everything around them.

I talked to friends who are on medications, and I know that there’re support programs, and I said, did you hear of this or that? And they're like, no idea. I think when you're a patient and you're just you're figuring out what your new normal looks like, and you're not always seeking out your pharma manufacturer’s programs, and there's so many amazing programs for patients.

There is already investment that's made addressing the emotional, overwhelming feeling of patience can help them in that rational decision making and mind frame to get them to those programs and stay on treatment