Switching and Escalating Therapy in Long-Lasting Multiple Sclerosis: Not Always Necessary

Although therapy switch is common among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), sometimes the initial prescribed treatment is maintained for a long period with clinical stability, low disability, and nonsignificant side effects. We aim to describe demographic and clinical characteristics of patients...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:ISRN neurology 2012, Vol.2012, p.451457-5
Main Authors: Carvalho, Ana Teresa, Sá, Maria José
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Clinical Study
Demography
Drug therapy
Drugs
Health sciences
Multiple sclerosis
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Side effects
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although therapy switch is common among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), sometimes the initial prescribed treatment is maintained for a long period with clinical stability, low disability, and nonsignificant side effects. We aim to describe demographic and clinical characteristics of patients treated in our MS clinic with the same disease-modifying drug (DMD) lasting for >12 years. From the cohort of 51 patients followed in our MS clinic with relapse-remitting MS who started an DMD between 1996 and 1999, we found a high percentage (51%) of patients who were efficiently treated with the first DMD. These patients were mainly females, with low annualized relapse rate and Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS). Our results may be related to the open and multidisciplinary model of our MS clinic organization. Identifying characteristics associated with therapy persistence may be useful in developing strategies to improve therapy effectiveness.
ISSN:2090-5513
2090-5505
2090-5513
DOI:10.5402/2012/451457