The importance of drugs’ characteristics when selecting specific therapy in psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis – attitudes and experiences of prescribing physicians in Croatia
Autori:
Antea Marošević, Ana Marija Masle, Dora Uršić, Višnja Prus, Simeon Grazio, Branimir Anić, Jasminka Milas Ahić
Sažetak
Summary
Background. Clinical practice of prescribing drugs in particular conditions or a group of diseases depends on different factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs influencing the choice of treatment for patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondiloartrhritis (axSpA). The study included Croatian rheumatology and clinical immunology residents and specialists with different professional experience and geographical place of work. Participants and methods. The cross-sectional multicentric study was performed using a two-part questionnaire containing 40 questions regarding the importance of certain drugs’ characteristic (ranging from 0 to 7) in the selection of optimal therapy for PsA and axSpA patients. Ninety-one respondents were interviewed in four Croatian geographical areas (Zagreb, Slavonia, Croatian Littoral and Dalmatia) who were divided into three groups according to specialization status and the years of professional experience as specialists (residents 33%, specialists with less than five years of experience 25.3%, and specialists with five or more years of experience 41.8%). Results. The most important characteristics at prescribing therapies for patients with PsA and axSpA were a good safety profile with low incidence of malignancies and severe infections, which was the choice of 78 (86%) subjects in the case of PsA and 71 (79%) subjects for axSpA. On the other hand, the least important were costs of the drug chosen by 12 (13%) subjects for PsA and axSpA alike, except for the subjects from Slavonia region. Conclusion. In our study characteristics of pharmacotherapy relevant for treatment choice in PsA and axSpA patients were evaluated. We found that for residents and specialist of rheumatology and clinical immunology from Croatia the most important characteristics are good safety profile as well as low incidence of malignancies and severe infections. However, the
price of biologics remains a challenge in less economically developed regions.