Self-medication and adherence to treatment in psoriasis

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.