All chronic treatments, regardless of disease, share three important features. First, they can usually remove or reduce the symptoms of the disease, but cannot affect the root causes of the disease. For example, beta blockers reduce blood pressure and insulin improves the body’s ability to digest sugars and starches, as long as the affected individual continues the treatment. However, these treatments do not return the affected individual to normal.

The second feature associated with all chronic treatments is that they require significant changes in lifestyle and behavior on the part of the patient to maximize their benefit. Even if individuals with diabetes regularly takes their insulin as prescribed, this will not stop disease progression if they do not also reduce sugar and starch intake, increase exercise and reduce stress levels.

The third feature derives from the first two. Because of the complexity of factors that can lead to a chronic illness and because of the need for ongoing medical care and lifestyle change, relapses are very likely to occur in all chronic illnesses. For these reasons, most contemporary treatment strategies in chronic illness involve regular in-person and/or telephone monitoring of medication adherence, coupled with encouragement and support for pro-health changes in diet, exercise and stress levels.  Increasingly, family members are being trained to provide continued monitoring and support for the behavioral changes necessary to maintain symptom remission and sustain good quality of life.