Most important considerations in choosing a regimen?

Anti-retroviral medications have improved, over time, with fewer (and sometimes better-managed) side effects, reduced numbers of required pills and less-frequent dosing.

Choosing the right medication combination is a very personal thing, and even each HIV specialist differs in their approaches: Some will choose a regimen that is very defensible while others prefer different choices. The choice often rests on the individual patient's priorities: Does the number of pills really seem important? For some, even many, it will. Is there any difficulty with varying day-to-day schedules (work, sleep, travel, etc...) making dosing schedules an important consideration. Are there certain other medications already (or likely to be) used to control such things as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues (particularly triglycerides)? Interactions with certain medications is an issue. Is there a co-infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C? This can influence the choice of medication and even the decision to start treatment or not. Is it likely that food will always be available at the specific time when one needs it for the medication (if the medication requires food)? For those who travel and who don't generally eat breakfast, this may influence once-a-day dosing scheduling as well as help decide whether or not once- or twice-a-day is best. And that can also lead to influencing decisions regarding which medication to choose as, for example, efavirenz (Sustiva) is often taken at nighttime in order to help manage certain possible side effects; however, there may be reasons to avoid that medication, so a different one may be needed.

For those folks being recommended to start treatment, these are among the questions that need to be thought out. If they are considered ahead of your appointment with the HIV specialist, a fuller discussion can be had and the result will be a better-tailored medication regimen that will work and that you can adhere to, which is the greatest single factor within our control that can prevent resistance developing by the virus to the medications... and obviously, that will lead to better health outcomes.