Many Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Don’t Take Medications as Prescribed
Many Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Doc’t take Medications as Prescribed – A new study from UK shows that almost 40% of patients who have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) do not take their medications as directed.
Researchers from the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology at The University of Manchester gathered data from a questionnaire, and found that 40% of the patients reported that they did not adhere to the doctor’s directions about taking the medicine.
RA is an autoimmune disorder characterized by inflammation of the joints in hands and feet. The body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues. The inflammation can result in severe bone erosion and deformity, if untreated. Treatment aims at easing symptoms and preventing joint damage. The new biologic drugs such as the anti-TNF therapy have revolutionized the treatment by blocking the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) pathway in the inflammatory process that causes RA, but these treatments are expensive.
Senior author and director of the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Professor Ian Bruce said that several factors seem to influence patients’ decision to not take the drugs as prescribed. The patient’s positive belief in the drugs, lack of concerns about side-effects of the drugs, and how they viewed their illness, all influenced their adherence to the drug. In general, patients who understood the chronic nature of their illness, and who had high levels of support from their doctors and family were more likely to take the drugs as prescribed. The fact that the drugs were expensive did not seem to impact adherence.
Researchers say that the study shows the importance of educating and supporting patients about their disease.
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