Adherence Rate to DMARDS in Egyptian Patients With RA

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the joints. It is chronic disease and often progressive in course and has a strong impact on people's everyday lives. Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDS), such as methotrexate, leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine, and sulfasalazine are the cornerstone of therapy in RA and are invariably used as initial therapy. These drugs have shown to retard disease progression including joint destruction. It is believed that adherence to treatment is crucial for successful therapy, however, non-adherence is a substantial problem in patients with chronic rheumatic conditions, including RA. Previous studies have reported that DMARDS non adherence results in more disease activity, loss of function, and a lower quality of life. The depression is a common co-morbidity in RA, its presence can alter the course of RA negatively via cognitive-behavioral or inflammatory pathways: patients with concurrent depression suffer from more pain, show a heightened disease activity. As non-adherence to medication regimen is considered a serious public health issue that can have great impact on clinical and economic consequences. therefore, it is crucial for health care providers to assess the patient condition, predict the possible causes of non-adherence, and put a policy for increasing medication adherence and achieving the best health outcome. Also, improving medication adherence enhances patients' safety and health condition.