Abstract:Objective:This study evaluated medication adherence and analgesic efficacy in patients with herpes zoster neuralgia (HZN) treated by short-term spinal cord stimulation (st-SCS), assessing outcomes at discharge and at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months post-discharge. We analyzed the association between adherence and pain relief to inform continuity-of-care strategies and guide the development of targeted nursing interventions. Methods:In this longitudinal cohort, 91 post-herpetic neuralgia patients undergoing st-SCS were enrolled. After device explantation, participants were followed by telephone at discharge, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months to document medication adherence (General Medication Adherence Scale, GMAS) and pain intensity (11-point Numerical Rating Scale, NRS). Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to assess the relationship between adherence and analgesic efficacy.Results:Spearman analysis demonstrated a significant inverse correlation between GMAS and NRS scores at all time points: discharge day (r = –0.462; P < 0.001), 1 week (r = –0.587; P < 0.001), 1 month (r = –0.658; P < 0.001), and 3 months (r = –0.704; P < 0.001), indicating a moderate to strong association.Conclusions: Post-discharge medication adherence is strongly associated with sustained pain relief in HZN patients treated with st-SCS. Implementing adherence-enhancing strategies may optimize long-term analgesic outcomes and reduce pain recurrence. Future research should investigate specific interventions to further improve adherence and clinical benefit.