Self-medication and adherence to treatment in psoriasis.

Dario Nicolas Kivelevitch, Paula Valeria Tahhan, Paula Bourren, Nora Noemi Kogan, Simon Eduardo Gusis, Eduardo Adolfo Rodríguez

Dermatology Department, Fernandez Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. doctorkive@hotmail.com

International journal of dermatology 2012 Apr

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Self-medication and non-adherence to treatment are very common practice. This often implies bad results for the patients, as well as for the physicians. Several studies suggest that up to 30-40% of the population is non-adherent to treatments. This problem generates 5% of all hospitalizations, having caused about 45,000 deaths in 2007 in Argentina. A 21-question survey was carried out among 176 patients with psoriasis in the Psoriasis Center at the Fernandez Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seventy-seven percent of the patients were non-adherent to treatment, and 33% were self-medicated. The two groups combined accounted for 82% of the population studied. We found no significant differences among the variables studied in either the non-adherence or the combined group, although males comprised 67% and females 33% of the self-medicated group, and that difference was statistically significant (P<0.025). Self-care is a very complex behavior to be explained by a single cause, which clearly makes it a multifactorial problem. In our view, patient education, the physician-patient relationship, and availability of more effective therapeutic options would be significant factors in modifying a deep-rooted behavior pattern. © 2012 The International Society of Dermatology.

Citation

Dario Nicolas Kivelevitch, Paula Valeria Tahhan, Paula Bourren, Nora Noemi Kogan, Simon Eduardo Gusis, Eduardo Adolfo Rodríguez. Self-medication and adherence to treatment in psoriasis. International journal of dermatology. 2012 Apr;51(4):416-9