OBJECTIVES: Non-adherence to treatment regimens results in risks and health care costs due to increased emergency care.  One reason for non-adherence, especially with multiple prescriptions, may be the lack of coordination of care among multiple specialists (Cutler & Everett, 2010).  Assuming that general/family practitioners (GPs) help coordinate patient care, the current study examined the impact on adherence of visiting a GP. METHODS: Adherence data from the European 2008 National Health and Wellness Survey (a self-reported online survey sampling respondents from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) were analyzed, with ANOVAs or negative binomial regressions (for resource utilization), as a function of seeing a GP (yes/no) crossed with number of prescriptions (1-2, 3-4, and 5+).  Adherence, the main outcome, was a Morisky Score ranging from 0 (perfect adherence) to 4 (low adherence).  Health care resource utilization measures included number of hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room (ER) in the past six months. RESULTS: There were 17,690 respondents (of 53,524 total) using 1-2 (n=6,434), 3-4 (5,529), or 5+ (5,727) prescription medications for symptomatic conditions.  Adherence was higher among those who saw a GP in the past 6 months (M=1.19, SD=1.24, n=14,802) vs. those who did not (M=1.36, SD=1.29, n=2,888), p<0.001, and higher among those with a higher number of prescriptions (for 5+, 3-4, and 1-2: Ms=0.99, 1.26, and 1.38; SDs=1.18, 1.26, and 1.27, respectively), p<0.001.  Hospitalizations were lower among GP visitors (M=0.30, SD=2.39) than non-visitors (M=0.34, SD=2.07), p<0.001, ER visits were lower among GP visitors (M=0.32, SD=1.20) than non-visitors (M=0.33, SD=2.09), p<0.001, and both were significantly higher among those with more prescriptions, ps<0.001.  The benefits of a GP were largely independent of number of medications. CONCLUSIONS: Among European patients taking prescriptions, visiting a GP was associated with greater adherence and lower health care resource utilization.