STUDIES ON LONG-TERM COMPLIANCE OF BASIC THERAPEUTICS IN THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

In a retrospective study we observed 716 DMARD treatments started in our outpatient department and followed up mainly by practitioners for over 2 years. 52.9 % of these therapies had been discontinued after 1, 81.7 % after 2 years, the difference between the administered drugs resochin, oral/parenteral gold, sulfasalazine, D-penicillamine and azathioprin being small. Reasons for discontinuation imply a high ratio of wrong applications, e.g. withdrawal before onset of full drug activity or misinterpretation of side effects. Thus, high interruption rate under resochin because of eye problems (28.5 %) was justified by ophthalmologists in only 25 % of the cases. Similarly, 10 % of the gold therapies had been discontinued because of skin symptoms not related to treatment. Cessation rate was 50 % higher in patients followed up by practitioners only (with almost 50 % of these treatments stopped by the patient himself). Our results suggest that treatment errors contribute considerably to the unfavourable longterm compliance of DMARD treatment.