Abstract
Introduction: Treatment for multiple sclerosis should focus on relapse prevention and treatment, as well as symptom and disease progression control, which require the use of multiple medications. Objective: To evaluate the association of polypharmacy and related clinical, epidemiological factors in multiple sclerosis patient cohorts. Methods: It was conducted a prospective study of multiple sclerosis patients that held a prescription of disease-modifying drugs between January and December 2017. The medications were analyzed and classified as either long-term or as-needed medications for therapeutic objective and prescription status purposes. Results: During 2017, 124 patients were attended, 106 were eligible for the study, and 81 agreed to participate. The average age was 40.95±11.69 years. The disease duration varied between 6 months and 30 years, with a median of 7 years. More than half of the multiple sclerosis patients suffered from comorbidities (54.32%), and 76.54% were categorized as polypharmacy. The comparison of polypharmacy between the groups yielded significant differences for comorbidities and employment status and regarding age between patients with polypharmacy and patients without polypharmacy of long-term medications. Conclusion: The age of the patient and the presence of comorbidities are important factors related to polypharmacy.
Highlights
Treatment for multiple sclerosis should focus on relapse prevention and treatment, as well as symptom and disease progression control, which require the use of multiple medications
As there is no cure, treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) should focus on relapse prevention and treatment, as well as symptom and disease progression control[5], which requires the use of multiple medications[6]
This study aimed to evaluate the association of clinical, epidemiological factors and polypharmacy in an MS patient cohort
Summary
Treatment for multiple sclerosis should focus on relapse prevention and treatment, as well as symptom and disease progression control, which require the use of multiple medications. As there is no cure, treatment for MS should focus on relapse prevention and treatment, as well as symptom and disease progression control[5], which requires the use of multiple medications[6]. In this sense, the available drugs (including complementary drugs and alternative therapies) have had significant beneficial effects on the quality of life of patients[7]
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