One of the biggest challenges for the rational use of medicines is the promotion of adherence and therefore there is a need to evaluate such factor. The main goal of this review was identify the methods used to evaluate the pharmacotherapy adherence adopted in Brazil. For this purpose a search was carried out at SCIELO, MEDLINE e BVS databases, for the keywords adherence to treatment, adherence to medication, medicine, psychometrics and Brazil. On this research 542 papers were selected and after screening those that did not present relevance for the investigated subject (adherence evaluation), resulting in 67 studies. The investigation of adherence in Brasil was increased mainly from the year 2000. Cross-sectional study was the most commonly found as well adults as subjects. The mainly investigated diseases were Aids and tuberculosis. The most commonly found research was about investigations on medication at a period of time. These results indicate that the study of adherence in Brazil began in the last decade, specially used for infectious diseases investigation, mainly through indirect methods of measurement. Also, pointed to a lack of method standardization when assessing adherence considering the specific therapeutic demanded by different diseases.

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