Abstract

Objectives:to evaluate the effectiveness and satisfaction of pain management in patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) according to a survey in the COMPAS (Quality of Pain Management according to Patients with Arthritis and Back pain) study.Methods:the survey involved 1040 patients with RD (rheumatoid arthritis-40.6%, osteoarthritis -32.1%, spondyloarthritis-10.6%, connective tissue diseases-8.6% of patients). 76.8% were women, the mean age was 55.8±14.0 years. 35.7% of patients continued to work in their specialty, 31.6% had various degrees of disability. The effectiveness of pain therapy was evaluated by the patient in the last month preceding the survey on a 5-point scale, where 1 - no effect and 5-excellent effect. Patients ‘ satisfaction with treatment, possible reasons for the lack of effectiveness of pain therapy and the use of additional treatment tools were also evaluated.Results:as therapy for the underlying disease, 40% of patients received conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, 33.1% - glucocorticoids, 7.2% - biological agents and 15.2% - symptomatic slow-acting drugs in osteoarthritis. At the same time, 68% of patients needed additional analgesic therapy with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Slightly less than half of the surveyed patients (46.9%) noted a moderate effect of analgesic therapy, 22.7% - a low effect and 5% - no effect, 23.7% rated the effectiveness of therapy as good and only 1.7% - as excellent. At the same time, only 15.6% of patients were completely satisfied with the result of NSAIDs, 64% were partially satisfied with the treatment and 20.4% were completely dissatisfied. As the reason of insufficient effectiveness of NSAIDs, most often (34.3%) patients named fear of adverse events associated with taking drugs, 19.4% - weak drugs, 15.3% - insufficient attention of doctors to complaints, 6.6% - poor diagnosis of the causes of pain. Others found it difficult to answer or were completely satisfied with the treatment. 40% of patients used additional methods, most often chiropractic (12.3%), acupuncture (4.8%), physiotherapy (12.7%) and folk remedies (7.4%).Conclusion:A significant proportion of patients with RD don’t have adequate pain control. Only 25.4% of patients rate the result of treatment as good and excellent, and even fewer patients (15.6%) are completely satisfied with the results of therapy. Thus, a personalized approach to analgesic therapy is necessary, taking into account the expectations of patients regarding the results of treatment.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

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